Middle School Musicians Converge on ICC

EAST PEORIA ― As spring break began Friday and college students vacated Illinois Central College, a smaller-statured group of students were just starting a musical weekend invasion of the East Peoria Campus.

Large masses of children, many of whom were carrying instrument cases, could be seen arriving in school buses on campus beginning around 2:00 p.m. Friday afternoon. They were here for this year’s Illinois Grade School Music Association (I.G.S.M.A.) District 2 Solo and Ensemble Contest, where grade school students from nine surrounding counties gathered to demonstrate their musical abilities.

The events on Friday were scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. and end at 9:00 p.m. According to I.G.S.M.A. documents, these events included 840 separate performances from more than 19 different schools. Then another 540 performances from yet another group of schools were scheduled for Saturday. According to Cindy Bridges, state advisor for I.G.S.M.A., the contest would bring about 3,000 grade-schoolers to ICC.

“It all junior high kids, and they can perform piano solos, orchestra events, ensembles or solos, vocal ensembles, or band ensembles,” said Bridges.

Bridges explained that I.G.S.M.A. districts don’t always have a single place like ICC where they can meet in mass.

“We’re fortunate we have ICC or we would be doing little contests in two or three different schools,” said Bridges. “If we didn’t have ICC we would be stuck.”

ICC doesn’t charge the I.G.S.M.A. for the use of the Academic Building. ICC provides the space as a service to the community and has been for at least 24 years according to Tony Jones, ICC’s band director and coordinator for ICC’s contributions to the event.

“Try and find another spot to have 16 rooms of contests and 30 – maybe 40 – rooms for home rooms,” said Jones. “You can’t do it; it can’t be done. So we do a good thing for them.”

Although it doesn’t charge for the venue space, ICC does benefit from the presence of the kids on campus.

“We make a lot of money from those kids going to the cafeteria and buying cheese fries,” said Jones, “so it’s good for the music department and it does do something for the college – number one, exposure [to the students].”

The event was officially called a contest, and many called it a competition, but the students were really only competing against themselves. After each individual or group performs, a designated judge would give them a score on a 1-3 scale (one being the best rating). Performers who get a “one” or a “two” are awarded a medal after the contests conclude.

“Each solo performer has their own judge’s sheet.” said Bridges, “It shows how old they are and how long they’ve been playing, and the judge kind of takes that into consideration [when rating the performance].”

Jones said the he sees it as a great opportunity for the kids to get to see the ICC campus and, more importantly, to enjoy music with their peers.

“It provides us with a little bit of income from the cafeteria, but mostly it’s a place for students to come and be musical. It’s great to see these kids so excited about playing with each other.”