Band directors offer plan to keep live auditions for All-State Band

PIERRE — The state’s high school band directors have offered a plan that they hope will allow for live auditions for students trying out for All-State Band. The plan was approved at Thursday’s meeting of the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors.

In the past, the association has used the state airplane to fly judges to audition sites across the state over two weekends in January. On the third weekend judges were driven to the audition site.

Over the past two years, winter weather has played havoc with that schedule. Two years ago, after two weekends of live auditions, bad weather forced the cancellation of the third weekend and those students had to submit taped auditions. This year bad weather canceled the first weekend, forcing all students to record their auditions.

The plan offered by band directors calls for grounding the state plane and driving judges to auditions. Auditions would get started on a Wednesday in January in Huron, move to Sioux Falls for auditions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and finish with auditions on Monday in Rapid City.

“I feel like we made some progress,” said Kimberly Carda, band director at Roncalli High School in Aberdeen. During the meeting, board members heard from six band directors, two parents of band students and one student band member.

Wendy Thorson, the band director at Northwestern, said students need the experience of auditioning live before a judge. “You’re not going to get that in a video audition,” Thorson said. “The majority of band directors and ADs (activities directors) want the live auditions”

In case of inclement weather, the auditions could be rescheduled over the next two weeks. The plan calls for a decision to be made on the Tuesday before auditions start to determine if the weather will be good enough to travel across the state.

At the board’s June meeting, SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director Brooks Bowman, who oversees fine arts for the association, offered the board two options that both included taping students’ auditions.

Bowman said his main concern was keeping students safe in winter weather. He also noted that holding the auditions over three weekends gave some students one or two more weeks to practice for their auditions. It was clear at Thursday’s meeting that he was not a fan of the band directors’ proposal.

“I really struggle with this,” Bowman said, when asked to offer his opinion of the plan. “It doesn’t fix everything.”

Bowman and others in the SDHSAA office have taken heat over the past two years over the need to go to taped auditions. The band directors’ support for the new plan, with the bad weather contingency, would have to be passed along to the parents of band students, Bowman said. “That would have to be a priority of the band directors.”

The SDHSAA board unanimously approved the new audition plan during its Aug. 1 meeting.