Sheldon, Iowa — Five Sheldon Orab musicians have been selected for All-State, according to Orab Band Director Cliff St. Clair and Vocal Director Brandon Lenderink.
Three Orab vocalists and two instrumentalists qualified for All-State for 2020. Orab singers qualifying, according to Lenderink, are sopranos Ada Borer, Rose Hoogers and Gracia Scheaffer. In addition, Band Director Cliff St. Clair says Orab senior Kellen De Kok was selected on French Horn for the second time, and junior Alex Van Surksum, who was an alternate in 2019, was selected on Tuba.
All-State will be very non-traditional this year, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Auditions, which would have been held face-to-face this past Saturday, were instead conducted via submitted videos of the students’ performances. And, traditionally, the All-State Festival would have been held in Ames in late November. However, that weekend festival has been cancelled this year, also due to the pandemic. St. Clair tells KIWA that discussions were had about separating the ensembles…band concert, choir concert and orchestra concert so the audiences could be limited, but that challenge, combined with rehearsal space for such large ensembles, forced the Iowa High School Music Association to cancel the 2020 All-State Festival. As a result, this year’s All-State Qualifiers will receive special recognition, but will not be able to experience the traditional All-State Festival weekend and concert.
