Great Bend’s Eighth Grade Middle School Orchestra attended the MS-WAC Music Festival in Dodge City on Friday, March 3. The students played two pieces, “March of the Meistersingers” by Wagner arranged by Dackow, and “Momentum” by Robert Longfield, in front of three judges.
Orchestras were from the Middle School - Western Athletic Conference. Scoring was based on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest. The orchestra came away with 1 ratings from all three judges. Only one other orchestra out of the six that performed received an overall 1 rating.
At this contest, the schools also had the opportunity to enter solos and ensembles.
Orchestra director Allyssa Lane said the dedication of the students who practiced at home and came in at least once a week to work on their music with her showed as 10 of the 19 entries received 1 ratings.
“This goes to show when the kids really buckle down and work hard they can accomplish great things,” Lane said. “I am very proud of our kids and how much our program is growing. These kids really are doing a great job of representing our school and our program. This program is just beginning to turn out great things and there is a lot more to come.”

I Rating
8th grade orchestra: Andrew Falck, cello solo; Karlee Dougherty, Kennedy Kern and Grace Dougherty, viola solos; Addie Ehrlich and Shiloh Britt, violin solos.
Valse Noble Quartet: Shiloh Britt, Paige Morgan, Grace Dougherty and Kirsten Miessler.
Fanfare Quartet: Shiv Karshan, Malachi Smith, Kaiden Procopio and Azha Elliott.
String Rhapsody: Violin 1 – Addie Ehrlich, Hannah Serna, Shiloh Britt; Violin 2 – Allyssa Moeder, Aden Mertens, Makayla Satterfield, Paige Morgan; Viola – Grace Dougherty, Karlee Dougherty, Kennedy Kern, Shiv Karshan; Cello – Kirsten Miessler, Andrew Falck; Bass – Thain Bowman.

II Rating
French Quintet: Paige Morgan, Aden Mertens, Malachi Smith, Andrew Falck and Thain Bowman.
Sonatina Quartet: Teresa Garcia, Makayla Satterfield, Rylee Ayon and Sebastian Cordova.
Thain Bowman, bass solo; Teresa Garcia, violin solo.

III Rating
Amazing Grace Quartet: Addie Ehrlich, Hannah Serna, Grace Dougherty and Karlee Dougherty.
Hannah Serna, Allyssa Moeder and Rylee Ayon, violin solos.