A select few music students performed at the ILMEA District Festival, which took place Nov. 20 at Elmhurst University. They had roughly five hours to rehearse with other schools before performing.

The Lab students chosen for the orchestra were sophomore Alice Fan and juniors Amelia Zheng on violin, Ameya Deo on horn, and William Tan on cello. 

“It was a nice experience,” Ameya said. “You all come there in the morning and everyone’s really prepped, so you hit the ground running and it sounds quite good. Everyone’s there for a reason.”

Ninth-grader Neha Dhawan and sophomores Ruairi Gilbert and Elizabeth Oyler performed in the freshman and sophomore chorus.

Elizabeth said, “I think it was really cool. I had never really signed up for anything like that before, but my choir teachers reached out to me because they were looking for people to do it.” 

Selected for the senior chorus were Lena Valenti, Nick Emerton and Erik Erling.

“It was a really refreshing experience to see, and be around, a lot of people that I know and don’t know who are also as passionate about choir as I am,” Lena said. “It was really nice to work with them and get to know, and build relationships with, people who share the same passion as I do.”