Midway and River Valley Middle School choir, orchestra, and band earned an impressive array of awards at recent UIL Concert and Sight-Reading competitions this spring, with 11 out of the 14 music groups who competed across both campuses earning sweepstakes awards, which is the highest honor available. Additionally, in its inaugural year, River Valley has already begun filling its classroom shelves with trophies and awards, joining the strong music legacy established by Midway Middle School in UIL contests.
The UIL Concert and Sight-reading contests challenge each choir, band, or orchestra to perform three contrasting style selections of music at a set level of difficulty (varsity or non-varsity) for three judges. Students are evaluated not only on their musicality and technical performance but also on their appearance and stage etiquette.
Following this “concert” performance, each group is tasked with learning a brand new piece of music in a limited time frame that neither the students nor their directors have ever seen before. This “sight-reading” performance is a true test of students’ musicianship and skill level and the guidance of their directors.
Groups are rated in concert and sight-reading from one to four with a score of one indicating superior performance and a two denoting excellence. Sweepstakes represents the highest honor possible and is awarded to groups who receive ones in both concert and sight-reading.
The Midway Middle and River Valley choirs continued Midway’s high-achieving legacy this year. The non-varsity treble and varsity treble choirs at both schools along with the varsity tenor-bass choir at Midway Middle and non-varsity tenor-bass choir at River Valley each received superior ratings from all judges and earned sweepstakes awards.
The varsity orchestra at Midway Middle School also earned sweepstakes, and the school’s non-varsity orchestra received an excellent rating in concert and a superior rating in sight-reading. River Valley’s varsity orchestra earned a superior rating in both concert and sight-reading, and the school’s non-varsity orchestra received an excellent concert rating and a superior sight-reading rating.
In band, both Midway Middle and River Valley varsity and non-varsity bands also all received sweepstakes awards.
