Searcy(LP) The Mid-Winter concert was performed successfully and the 2017 Regional Concert Contest Assessment was the next challenge for the Searcy Orchestra this month. The event took place on Monday and Tuesday, March 13th and 14th.

The contest located at West Memphis and there were 3 groups participated this contest. They were Searcy 8th-grade orchestra, 9th-grade orchestra, and high school orchestra respectively. The 8th-grade and 9th-grade orchestra went to contest on Monday and High School orchestra went on Tuesday. Most contests started in the afternoon and all the orchestra students and band students left school earlier than usual on Monday and Tuesday. High School orchestra left the school at 2:30 pm on Tuesday and they arrived the destination about 6:15 pm and the contest started at 7:00 pm. “We brought the money and had our dinner near the contest place in West Memphis. We started packing up and preparing on the bus until 6:45 pm.” said Chesni Raibley, a senior in Searcy High School Orchestra. The process of the contest has three parts including warm-up, performance, and sight reading. “We had almost 15 minutes for warming up and it was much longer than last year. We played three songs on the stage for judges and every judge had recorded their comments for every song. This performance took about 30 minutes. We got our scores on the bus and left about 8:00 pm. We arrived at Searcy at 10:00 pm. It was cold and snowing in West Memphis.” said Courtney King, an 11th-grade student in the high school orchestra. The schedules of 8th and 9th grades were different from the high school schedules. 8th-grade and 9th-grade orchestras left at 1:00 pm from school and they arrived in West-Memphis at around 3:00 pm. Maggie Pruitt, an 8th-grade cello player in Searcy Orchestra, said: “We took more than 1 hour to play for judges and arrived home about 9:00 pm.” The contest didn’t take too long but everyone was a little bit nervous. “ We had the dinner on the way back home and I felt really relaxed after the contest.” said Maggie Pruitt.

The contest which was prepared by students for almost 2 months was very successful and Searcy School Orchestras got “1”s and “2” for their scores. The good results showed everybody the hard works of students at Searcy School Orchestra.