Floyd Central orchestra celebrates state championship win

May 9—FLOYDS KNOBS — After months of hard work, Floyd Central High School orchestra students are celebrating their state championship win.

The Floyd Central Symphony Orchestra received first place at the Indiana State School Music Association (ISSMA) state finals Saturday in Indianapolis.

The orchestra was one of eight in Indiana that advanced to the state finals.

Floyd Central Orchestra Director Doug Elmore said the students "worked and worked and worked up to the last second" to prepare for Saturday's performance.

"We were still fixing things in the warm-up room five minutes before we went on stage, and the kids never stopped trying," he said. "For that, I'm enormously grateful, because that's how championships are won — by never giving up and by showing up every day."

This is the third time the Floyd Central orchestra has won the competition, and it is the 32nd year the orchestra has qualified for the state finals, according to Elmore. The orchestra also placed first at the ISSMA state finals in 2017 and 1995.

"Winning it once is unusual," Elmore said. "Winning it three times is nearly impossible."

At the state finals, the orchestra performed a set of three pieces in front of judges, who ranked and provided feedback on their performances. The contest took place at Pike High School.

Senior Millie Meunier, a viola player in the orchestra, said the constant practicing leading up to the state finals could feel tedious at times, but over time, the improvements become clear.

"Sometimes we'll spend an entire class period on just making sure those couple measures sound really good, and then it's really rewarding when it comes together at the end," she said. "Like all those little things that we've worked on together, all come together to make something amazing like we did."

She was one of the students who accepted the award at the state finals, which was a "surreal experience."

"At [state] qualifiers, we didn't play our best there, and it wasn't looking very good at qualifiers, and the fact that we were able to come back from that and still managed to win state — I thought that was such an amazing achievement that we were able to grow so much that week between qualifiers and state to accomplish what we did in the end," Meunier said.

Floyd Central senior Logan Love, a violinist in the orchestra, said on Saturday, he felt good about their performance as he left the stage, but it was "nerve-wracking" as they waited to hear the results.

"I was pretty sure we were going to be in the top four, but winning was an insanely big thing," he said. "Once it happened, I was insanely shocked."

It was "pandemonium" at the award ceremony when the orchestra realized they won first place, Elmore said. Winners were revealed in reverse order, and when Floyd Central was the last to be called, there was "screaming, hugging [and] pounding on the bleachers."

He emphasizes that the school competed against the biggest high schools in the state.

"For a school the size of Floyd Central to be successful at this level is remarkable," Elmore said. "Carmel High School, who placed second behind us, is nearly three times the size of Floyd Central High School. They have three times the resources, which means they have three times the resources, three times the teachers and three times the talented kids to choose from."

"Avon High School, who placed third, is nearly double the size of Floyd Central," he said. "A friend of mine put the statistics together, and we were, once again, the smallest high school to even get a group to the state finals."

Floyd Central's choir and band also advanced to Saturday's ISSMA state finals, and the groups were among 16 choirs and 16 bands who qualified. The choir received fourth place, and the band received eighth place.

Elmore said he is proud to be a teacher in a program "where every branch of the music department embraces excellence at the highest level."

"They walk into the classroom every day with the knowledge that they're going to work as hard as they can at chasing perfection — every single group," he said.

For the ISSMA contest, the orchestra performed "March to the Scaffold" from Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique," Johann Sebastian Bach's "Mein Jesu," and the third movement of Howard Hanson's "Symphony No. 2."

"They played wonderfully well," Elmore said. "We felt really good about the performance. They played as well as they could possibly have played under these circumstances, and we felt like they really reached their highest level that day."

"Of course, you have no control over how the other groups play or how the judges perceive it, so we spent a lot of time just kind of hoping for the best and celebrating the fact that they played well," he said. "It was, of course, a lovely thing that the judges thought so highly of their performance also."

The students began working on the music for the ISSMA contest starting in January, and the orchestra devoted hard work and many hours to rehearsals while also balancing other concerts and performances throughout the semester.

Each piece "presented a really specific set of demands" for the musicians, Elmore said.

"We had to very carefully rehearse to meet all of those demands when they sat down on the stage to play," he said.

Students rehearsed the pieces in class with Elmore, and Paul Shepherd, a music teacher at Highland Hills Middle School, coached the wind and percussion section each week after school.

The orchestra then brought the entire group together for rehearsals, which occurred about every two weeks on Thursday nights "to integrate the string and wind parts together," Elmore said. The full orchestra consists of 117 musicians, including string, wind and percussion.

"It's an enormous time commitment and an enormous work commitment," he said. "The kids, I am happy to say, worked, very, very hard at this music, and their hard work showed when they sat down and played."

Floyd Central senior Katherine Ormbsy, a bassist in the orchestra, said preparations for the performance required extensive practice as both an individual and an ensemble.

Ormsby also plays bass for Floyd Central's band, and when the orchestra state final results were announced, she was actually at another high school for their contest.

She said she "still cannot believe it" after winning the state championship.

"I still cannot believe it," Ormsby said. "I mean, I think we all expected to do well, but I don't think we realized we would win. Like, it was expected, but it wasn't. It's crazy. I'm still in disbelief. It's awesome."