Three-man team finishes second, earns state competition trip; two others participate as non-competing team
On Friday, January 24, five Mountain Lake Public High School (MLPS) student musicians participated in the Regional round of the Minnesota Music Listening Contest at Minnesota State University-Mankato. The test consists of five rounds of listening, multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions covering music since 500 A.D. in a variety of genres. This year’s focus was J.S. Bach (the featured composer), “South of the Border” (the featured ethno-music category) and movie music ( the featured genre). Christian Pfeiffer, Eric Niss and Reece Englund took second-place and earned a trip to the State competition to be held on Friday, February 7 on the campus of Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Samuel Hirsch and Samuel Xayanourom participated as a non-competing team. Kurt Jahnke is the school’s instrumental director.
The contest, now in its 27th year, is an independent, not-for-profit competition enriching students’ experiences with classical, ethnic and popular music. In this statewide contest open to all Minnesota high school students in grades 9-12, including public schools, private schools, home schools or music studios, participating students develop skills in active listening and critical analysis by learning to identify composers, cultures, periods and styles. All three-member teams participate in regional competitions throughout the state in January; first- and second-place teams from each region advance to the state competition in February.
