After missing a considerable amount of school and consequently, band lessons, many Pleasant Valley musicians felt unprepared going into Solo Fest this past Tuesday.
Every year, during late February, the Pleasant Valley band program hosts its local Solo Fest.
Students prepare their solos for months, working with their lesson teachers in an attempt to perfect every aspect of their music. While students normally wait eagerly for the day they can showcase all of this hard work in front of a judge to receive feedback, this year was quite the opposite.
Similar to gym classes and their two-day repeating schedule, band lessons operate on a six-day schedule; students are guaranteed at least one 15-minute lesson every two weeks. However, the record number of weather-related cancellations, late-starts, and early-outs butchered this band lesson cycle.
Rather than one lesson every two weeks, many students had about one lesson over a span of two months. Senior flute player Liv Penniston explained, “I only had ONE school lesson where Mrs. Daurer picked out about five solos for me, but due to the snow days we never decided on one. I ended up actually picking-out my solo the night before solo fest.”
Many students, like Penniston, expressed concern regarding the unpreparedness of their solos due to diminished practice time with instructors. Penniston said, “I was way less prepared [this year] compared to previous years.”
While students may be able to take their instruments home and practice independently, rehearsing solos with one of the band directors has always proven to be more beneficial. Penniston added, “Practicing by yourself on new music can feel like teaching yourself a subject in school. Being able to sit down with a teacher and have them teach you not only the fundamentals but more detailed things is so helpful.”
On the other hand, a handful of students take private lessons in addition to the biweekly lessons offered by the school. Private lessons often last longer and are more regular. Junior flute player Aditya Desai said, “I take private lessons because I want to improve my playing. School lessons do help, but they are very short, and there are many days between them.”
Private lessons allowed many students to receive individualized attention from instructors, regardless of the scrambled school lesson schedule. Desai added, “I take weekly private lessons with a teacher outside of school, so I was able to still play and get feedback during each of my lessons. Because I was still having lessons, I felt more prepared than most people.”
However prepared students may (or may not) have been, Solo Fest was and continues to be an extremely advantageous experience for all musicians. PV and Boston Conservatory alumnus, Rob Hadesbeck, who is also a private lesson teacher to many of PV’s clarinet players, is a proponent of the Solo Fest process. “Solo Fest forces students to actually prepare in order to achieve their goals. Not to mention that it teaches students to perform under pressure and take constructive criticism,” he said.
The skills and qualities that Solo Fest cultivates among students are applicable outside of auditions and rehearsals. Hadesbeck added, “Solo Fest will teach these young musicians how to handle stressful situations later in life, like job interviews.”
Pleasant Valley is one of the only schools that requires students to participate in a local Solo Fest. Many schools in the area only offer optional participation in the State Solo and Ensemble fest on April 6.
PV encourages participation in this event but requires participation in the school Solo Fest. Rob Medd, one of PV’s band directors, said, “By having all of our students go through this process at PVHS, it allows for all of them to work on skills that would otherwise be underdeveloped. It is a unique experience that we as directors feel all students should go through to learn and grow as musicians.”
While students may have been unprepared for Solo Fest this year due to inclement weather and lesson cancellations, Solo Fest remains a beneficial event for all Pleasant Valley Musicians.
