On Friday, March 3, middle school students from Helper, Mont Harmon, San Rafael, and Canyon View descended upon USU Eastern’s Geary Theater for the annual Castle Valley Region Solo & Ensemble Festival. Students had a variety of options to choose from in participating. Students could choose from Vocal Solo, Vocal Ensemble, Instrumental Solo, Instrumental Ensemble, or Piano Solo.
Guest judges from outside Castle Valley were invited to adjudicate and pick their top three outstanding performances in the categories Vocal Solo/Ensemble, and Instrumental Solo/Ensemble, and a single outstanding performance in Piano Solo. Helper and Mont Harmon students all performed admirably and took a fair number of outstanding performances and also claimed a few honorable mentions.
In Instrumental Solo/Ensemble: Rylen Hatch of Mont Harmon took an Outstanding Performance title for his flute performance. As did Taylor Keller and Carlos Martinez for their flute duet. Carbon also claimed all three Honorable Mentions in this category: Spencer Hawley of Mont Harmon on the bass clarinet, Taylor Keller of Mont Harmon on the flute, and Brookleigh Unsworth, Cecily Riley, Ashlyn Coho, and Leah Sweeney for their Ensemble Performance.
In Vocal Solo/Ensemble: Outstanding Female went to Emma Dart of Helper, Outstanding Male went to James Hawkins of Mont Harmon, and Outstanding Ensemble went to Dylan Bates-Wood, Kaylynn Palmer, and Dominik Torres
of Mont Harmon. Blythe Bradford of Mont Harmon and Josie Vea of Helper claimed two of the three honorable mentions as well.
In Piano Solo: Levi King of Mont Harmon claimed the Outstanding Performance win.
Additionally, Levi King and Asher Thayn of Mont Harmon received recognition as “Superior All Around Musicians” for their performances in each of the three categories - Vocal Solo, Instrumental Solo, and Piano Solo.