Five EPHS Musicians Earn ILMEA Honors

Five EPHS students have been named to Illinois Music Education Association District 1 honors ensembles! To be considered, they had to submit audition videos of themselves performing required musical selections. The honorees are:

• Karolina Wojdyla, Senior Band — Flute
• Amanda Camacho, Senior Chorus — Soprano I
• Kelly Dietrich, Senior Chorus — Alto II
• Terea Hargrove, Senior Chorus — Alto II
• Kimberly Herrera — Senior Chorus — Alto I

All five students will perform in the District 1 Senior Festival at Elmhurst University on Nov. 8.

Although some of the students have participated in ILMEA concerts before, it’s the first time any of them have been selected for ILMEA honors after going through the organization’s rigorous audition process.

“I was pretty surprised,” said Amanda Camacho about finding out she had been selected. A junior at EPHS, Amanda is a member of the school’s Swing Choir. She has been singing in choirs for about seven years, dating back to elementary school.

Her fellow junior, Terea Hargrove, said: “I’ve done ILMEA in the past, for the 9/10 Chorus, but this one I really wanted to get into because the songs are really good and I just had really high hopes for this one.” Terea is a member of Swing Choir and has been singing in choirs for nine years.

Senior Kelly Dietrich is also a Swing Choir member who has performed in ILMEA’s 9/10 Chorus. “I appreciate choir because it allows you to connect with people around you who love music the same way you do,” she said.

Senior Kimberly Herrera, another Swing Choir member, also plays clarinet and is one of the two drum majors for this year’s Marching Tigers. For Kimberly, what she likes most about singing in a choir is “the way that we are able to express our emotions and go with the feeling of it.”

Senior Karolina Wojdyla is the Marching Tigers’ other drum major. Besides the flute, which she has played since 6th grade (“What I really liked about it was the sweet sound,” she noted), Karolina plays alto saxophone in the EPHS Jazz Band. “Making music is a really fun way to kind of calm down and express myself,” she said.

Congrats to all! Go Tigers!