Processing adjudication festivals

Tuesday was awesome!  I was able to take all 3 of the concert bands at Mercer to the PMEA Instrumental Adjudication festival at Westminster College.  I am very pleased with the groups and their performance.  Pennsylvania’s adjudication circuit allows directors to choose music from the state list (which NEEDS serious revamping PMEA!!! Not that I dwell on the problems within the list…) and prepare 2 to 3 selections.  Those selections are then evaluated by a panel of judges, usually a group of collegiate educators.  After the prepared selections are completed, the group is then asked to perform a sight-reading session.  In a nutshell this is what happens: The ensemble is given music one grade level below what they performed on the prepared section.  The director and ensemble have 2 minutes to silently read the piece.  After that time passes, the director can talk with the ensemble for 3 minutes.  They may speak parts, sing parts, clap parts, talk about key and time changes, tempo, style – whatever – but they cannot play a note.  At the end of that time, the ensemble is to play the piece from start to finish.  It is a really great exercise and one that I prepped my groups for by doing regularly over the last two months (I even had my Middle School group do it in that format for a live audience at our February concert).