Once Upon a Time at Solo and Ensemble...

There was a 7th Grade clarinetist who'd been working hard with her partner on their duet. Her friend was a flute player and played the top line in the duet. The clarinetist played the bottom. They practiced and practiced and even set up time to work with their teacher.

The day of their very first Solo and Ensemble arrived and it snowed...a lot.

The young clarinetist and her mom showed up early but unfortunately received a call from her partner that she could not make it. Upon realizing that she could not play one half of a duet and receive an official rating, she was extremely disappointed but tried to put on a brave face so that she could play for comments.

Seeing her dilemma, the teacher working in the clarinetist's warm-up room quietly sought out the student's teacher to see if he knew of any students still around who could perform with her. Sadly they'd all played already and had likely left for home.

The clarinetist kept practicing so that at least her part would be well played and she could get helpful feedback from the adjudicator.

But wait!

Her teacher found a couple of 8th Graders from her school! They both happily volunteered to perform alongside the 7th grader and played rock, paper, scissors to decide who would be her new partner. The winner double checked with her family and they enthusiastically agreed to stick around to allow their student to help out.

With only 30 minutes to go until her scheduled time, the two got right to work as the 8th Grader learned the part on the spot and they practiced all they could.

Performance time came and both walked in as though they'd been playing together all along even though they'd just introduced themselves to each other half an hour before. Their family and friends all went in to provide a supportive audience.

Everyone was all smiles as they left the room following their performance and a few minutes later their work and cooperation paid off with a First Division Rating. Even better though were two girls and their families who'd never interacted before hugging and smiling like they'd all been friends forever.

And that, Dear Audience, is another story to add to the reasons that Solo and Ensemble is one of this story teller's favorite events.