Four band students and three choir students made district after auditioning at Olathe East High School on Saturday, Nov. 15.

District band and choir are honor performance groups for an area of Kansas. Mill Valley is in the northeast district. Students in district band and choir perform in a special concert in December and have the opportunity to audition for state band and choir. In total, there are 63 students in district gold band, 98 students in district blue band, 97 in district red band and 264 in high school district choir.

Of the nine band students who auditioned from Mill Valley, juniors Brian Fitzsimmons (trumpet) and Margaret Hempleman (flute) made district blue band while senior Kate Schau (euphonium) and junior Sherry McLeod (bassoon) made district red band.

Of the 13 choir students who auditioned from Mill Valley, senior Henry Hanson (second tenor) and juniors Rachel Lamb (second soprano) and Allen Weinert (first tenor) made district choir.

Although she felt stressed in preparation for the audition, Schau said some of the tension let up before her performance.

“You just get so nervous,” Schau said. “When I got there I was feeling a lot better about it.”

For Lamb, stress came from lack of preparation.

“It made me nervous,” Lamb said. “I didn’t expect to make it this year because I didn’t have a lot of time to practice.”

Both Schau and Lamb auditioned last year and made it. According to Lamb, having already been through the audition process once made the second time easier.

“This year I knew what I was doing; it wasn’t quite as scary,” Lamb said. “I auditioned in the exact same room as last year … It was nice to know what to expect.”

Schau said her audition this year was not much different from last year’s.

“I never perform as well as I know I can [for auditions] but it’s always enough,” Schau said.

Upon making district, both Schau and Lamb were pleased.

“I was quite excited,” Schau said. “[I felt] relief … and general contentment.”