On Dec. 19, the percussion ensemble traveled to Chicago and performed at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic.

The ensemble made history by becoming Rockwood’s first ever group to go to the conference. Director Peter Repp said after being selected, they also became the first percussion group from Missouri to attend.

“We sent in recordings at an audition to a panel of judges that selected groups to go and play. We were the first percussion ensemble from the state of Missouri to ever go, and we were the first group from Rockwood to ever go,” Repp said. “There have been a couple of high school bands from Missouri in the past that have gone, but never a percussion ensemble and never anyone from Rockwood.”

Senior Jenny Reiter said that the preparation was a bit stressful, but the performance went well.

“I feel like everyone did really good. The program ran pretty smoothly. There were not really any hiccups. Everyone was a little stressed out unloading and loading the buses but other than that it was a pretty smooth runthrough,” Reiter said.

She said the performance consisted of nine pieces; some were duets, and others included the entire ensemble.

“We performed nine pieces in total. There was one that was kind of a duet with background instrumental and drum set in the background with a group of six of us and the rest of them were pretty big groups and a lot of the songs had all of the players playing at the same time,” Reiter said.

Additionally, after their performance, Repp said the group got to watch the performances of other groups and enjoy the city.

“[The] night after the performance, we got to enjoy some Chicago style pizza and went ice skating outside in Millennium Park as a group which was pretty fun. And the next day we got to see some other groups perform which was really fun,” Repp said.

Reiter said that after the performance, she learned that intense preparation drastically reduces nervousness.

“If you practice a ton, you won’t be nervous at all, at least for me personally because we practiced so much then when I got out there I wasn’t nervous at all, I just kind of did my thing and that was it,” Reiter said.