Sequoyah Cook selected for ILMEA Festival
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In her eight years in band, Sequoyah Cook, a senior at Chrisman High School, has now been selected to All-District three times. Cook will be joining fellow Chrisman student Ali Prisecaru as they both will be at the ILMEA District Festival.
The festival is a concert performed by high school students that are selected through auditions.
Performers are given music to sight read until the day they meet with the rest of the selected students. Those performing will consist of bands and choirs.
The day of the festival, the students will arrive in the morning, practice for a couple of hours, take a break, then practice once more before the big performance.
“We perform our music in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of people, then we go home and dream about the magical evening until next year when we do it all again,” Cook told us.
This year’s format was different than in the past.
The first couple of times Cook auditioned, she was given pieces to play in front of a few judges in person and waited until they made a decision. The last couple of years, audition videos were sent in.
For her audition, Sequoyah was given scales to play along with two sight pieces. Her instrument of choice was the euphonium, or as former band teacher Mr. Nelson would say, the ‘baritonephonium’.
“I chose to play the euphonium because my older brother played it and I wanted to challenge him,” Cook said.
Last week, Mrs. Traver pulled Sequoyah and Ali into her office to tell them the good news.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to get in this year because I really didn’t think my audition tapes went too well, but I was excited and am so grateful and ready to get back,” Cook said.
“I am looking forward to the entire experience.
I love coming together with fellow talented musicians, making new friends and putting on an amazing concert at the end of the day.”
