Several band members headed to Plano East High School to compete in Solo and Ensemble on Saturday and 106 advanced, with 14 of them qualifying to go to state in Austin.

“Every student in each ensemble was required to prepare and perform a piece of music for the solo contest. Each individual has been preparing a solo for the past few months,” associate band director Zach Anderson said. “We started the process in November when we ordered our music and since December through now, each student has been preparing individually for UIL solo and ensemble contests.”

After months of preparation leading up to the contest, students were able to showcase their work to the judges.

“I got here early every day before school and practiced and I would go home and practice,” sophomore Jia Kanar said. “Sometimes if I had time during lunch I would just go in and practice, it’s all about just practicing.”

With this being her first year in high school band, freshman Jeamin Yun finds advancing a sign of hope for what her future in high school band can hold.

“I guess advancing is really exciting,” Yun said. “Advancing as a freshman kind of gives me hope as to how maybe later I can do better stuff.”

After putting in the work that went into preparing for solo and ensemble, Kanar believes that advancing is a testimony to her efforts.

“I feel like I did better than I thought I would, I was a little bit nervous going into it, but I was definitely happy with the way I performed,” Kanar said. “I felt like all my hard work has paid off and now my goal for state is to get a one.”

Already looking ahead to what comes next, Yun hopes to continue improving on the road to state.

“My goal for state would be, obviously to perform well and feel good about my performance,” she said. “If I could get a one rating that would also be really good.”