Some came from baseball practice, others on their way to soccer games. They waited anxiously outside the audition rooms for their five-minute chance to impress the judges.
"I’m nervous, and I don’t really want to do this. I’m excited to find out the results, though," said Jillian Buchheim of Springfield. She wore her blue Springfield Youth Soccer uniform and clutched a sheet of music while waiting.
The good news about these auditions, however, was that there were no losers, since everyone at the auditions would be students at the new South County Secondary School in Lorton, scheduled to open in September.
"It’s not like it’s an audition for a performing group where you make it or you don’t make it. What we’re doing here is auditioning them for the appropriate placement … but the goal is to make sure we meet the needs of the students and they’re in the group that’s the correct one for them," said Cheryl DeVincentis, chair of the fine and performing arts department at South County.
The auditions took place Monday, May 2 and Tuesday, May 3, at Silverbrook Elementary in Fairfax Station for prospective students at the new school interested in being in band, orchestra or choir. DeVincentis said she had scheduled 180 student auditions over the two days, and while not all of the 212 students who signed up for band and 117 who signed up for choir in grades 7-11 needed to audition, the audition process was the first step in putting together a music program from scratch.
"You don’t know who’s coming in until today. We had no idea how many flutes, clarinets, cellos," she said.
ACCORDING TO DeVincentis, both band and orchestra will have beginning, intermediate and advanced levels in both, and probably at least four or five different choirs. Other specialty groups, like a middle school boys choir or women’s choir, would be determined following auditions.
Assisting with the auditions were South County band director Alan Johnson, currently at Chantilly; choir director Sherlee Huang, currently at Robinson; middle school band director Kevin Scully, and orchestra director LaToya Slocumb, who currently directs the orchestra at Sandburg Middle School.
"It makes it seem more real. It’s all coming together," said Slocumb, who said for the past three weeks her days have been spent ordering instruments, compiling a budget and working on startup music.
"I’m excited about starting a program from the bottom to the top, everything from ordering Post-Its and trash cans to meeting the children coming from all different schools and plugging them into our new orchestra," she said.
The fine and performing arts department at the new school will be supported by a booster club, which will not only support programs like band and orchestra, but all arts programs, including drama and the television production program, DeVincentis will oversee.
"They're all excited about it," said Loraine Goodenough of Springfield, about her daughter’s friends. "There's some things she can do over there that she couldn't do at Hayfield."
Once the students are all placed in their appropriate level of band, choir or orchestra, classes will be created based on the number of students.
"I think from here until Sept. 6, it’s not going to stop," said Slocumb.
Goodenough, who had the chance to meet her daughter’s teachers for the first time at a booster club meeting on April 27, had a positive impression of the new staff at South County. "They have a lot of energy. They must take their vitamins."