EBMEA Orches­tra Fes­ti­val Field Trip

On March 19^th, stu­dents will take part in a half-day field trip to per­form at the EBMEA (Elliot Bay Music Educator’s Asso­ci­a­tion) Orches­tra Fes­ti­val, host­ed at Whit­man Mid­dle School. This is a great oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn how an orches­tra fes­ti­val works in a low-stakes, non-com­pet­i­tive, and local fes­ti­val. They will have the chance to per­form for a set of adju­di­ca­tors and receive feed­back from one adju­di­ca­tor, and then hear a few oth­er mid­dle school orches­tras per­form before return­ing to RESMS. This is a primer for their expe­ri­ence in Con­cert Orches­tra next year (or the year after), where they will attend a Uni­ver­si­ty host­ed orches­tra fes­ti­val.

As the fes­ti­val chair and orga­niz­er, I have to be present for the whole day at Whit­man, mean­ing this field trip will run a lit­tle dif­fer­ent­ly.

Stu­dents will need to arrive on their own to Whit­man MS by 8:45am. They have a warm up at 9:05, so it is super cru­cial they arrive on time. Stu­dents are wel­come to walk, bus, car­pool, etc so long as they arrive with their music and instru­ment.

Stu­dents will take a school bus back to RESMS with Mr. Stow­ell (Thank you Stow­ell!!!!) with their belong­ings and should return part­way through 3^rd peri­od. One of our RESMS admin will be bussing back with the kids in lieu of myself.

Instead of con­cert black, I am ask­ing that stu­dents wear their 2025–26 Music T‑shirt (hand­ed out after the win­ter con­cert), jeans, and closed toe shoes. Since stu­dents will be return­ing back to RESMS halfway through the day, I am hop­ing this will be more com­fort­able than their con­cert black.