Contest Season for Tomball High School’s Orchestra is coming up soon, and the Orchestra directors, David Golden and Brie Grossi, are beginning to prepare.

Contest Season ( April 5-6 ) is when all of the Orchestras in the region attend a competition, with a few songs prepared, to perform in front of judges, who rate the performance from a 1 (highest) to a 5 (highest).

The points are placed on specific critiques in the performance, such as the ability to stay in tune, how well they kept the rhythm together, and the overall sound of the piece that they were playing.

When the performance portion of the competition is over, the orchestra goes to a different room to perform the sight-reading contest. Sight Reading is when any orchestra, band, or choir member walks into a room not knowing what they’re going to play.

They are given a sheet of music that is completely unknown to them, and their director must teach it to them under a certain amount of time. If anyone talks, makes a sound, or plays anything, the whole group is disqualified. The only people permitted to speak are the judges, and the conductor.

This is a critical portion of the competition, because it demonstrates the group’s ability to read music.

The orchestra will open music folder that is on their stand, and the conductor will signal to different parts of the music, and the players must “shadow play”, which is a term used when an orchestra does the motions of playing, but does not actually make a noise.

After a certain amount of time, someone will yell out “Time!” and the conductor stops talking. The orchestra will then have to perform the piece in front of the judges, and will receive a rating of any number from 1(highest)-5(lowest).