Solo Festival

Accompanist schedule

Solo Festival Schedule

Volunteer to help manage accompanist rehearsals at Excelsior

Volunteer to help the afternoon/evening of Solo Festival

Please pay $20 accompanist in PowerSchool:  "Student Band Performance Accompanist (Optional)"

• What 

• Linn-Mar Middle School Solo Festival 

• When  

• Thursday, March 12, 2026 

• Where  

• Excelsior Middle School 

• Who performs 

• All Excelsior and Oak Ridge Middle School band students 

• Who can watch 

• All parents, friends, and family are welcome and encouraged to watch their child’s performance!   

• A typical “audience” consists of parents, siblings, piano accompanist, and the judge/clinician. 

• Time  

• Students will be scheduled in 5-minute time slots.   

• Their total time commitment will be approximately 45 minutes. 

• Students should arrive 20 minutes before their performance to warm up, and plan to stay approximately 20 minutes after. 

• Once students pick up their certificate/feedback approximately 20 minutes after their performance from the cafeteria, they are free to leave. 

• If your child has a potential conflict between 4:00 and 7:30 pm on March 12, we will do our best to schedule around it.  To do so, we need parents of students who have a conflict to fill out this form on or before Thursday, February 26.   

• We can not accept forms after February 27.   

• Please only fill out the form if there is a major conflict (i.e. basketball game, wrestling meet, doctor’s appointment, church activity, etc.).  

• Accompanist rehearsals 

• All brass and woodwind students (everyone except percussionists) perform their solo with a piano accompanist.  Accompanists are community members who regularly play for our Solo Festival.  They go through a background check when they enter the building and have served as accompanists for Linn-Mar for many years. 

• Each accompanist is paid $20 per students by families for their time.  This includes the performance and two rehearsals leading up to Solo Festival.   

• Please pay for your child’s accompanist in PowerSchool by selecting “Student Band Performance Accompanist (Optional).”  Payments should be made by February 27. 

• If you prefer that your child perform unaccompanied or with a recording, please reach out to Mr. Davies so he can plan accordingly.  This would not impact your child’s rating or feedback in any way. 

• All brass and woodwind students are scheduled to rehearsal with an accompanist in the weeks leading up to Solo Festival.  That schedule can be found here.  Students will also receive a hardy copy of their accompanist days and times.   

• Please mark these rehearsals in your family calendar and remind your child the day of their accompanist rehearsals to help the day run smoothly. 

• Volunteer opportunities 

• We need several parents to serve as “accompanist rehearsal managers” during the various days accompanists will be at Excelsior to work with students.  It involves checking students off as they come down for their rehearsals, helping them find what room they should go to, and tracking down students who forget.  It’s an easy but rewarding chance to help kids and allow the directors to use their time teaching their normal lesson schedule!  Feel free to bring something to read, work on, etc., as there will likely be some down time.   

• If you would be willing to help out, please sign up through this link. 

• This is a large event and takes many volunteers for it to be successful!  Please consider signing up to help out or donate items by signing up here.  We are so grateful for the outpouring of assistance we’ve received in the past from parents.