ILMEA’s commitment to equity and accessibility remains strong as we continue to refine our practices and procedures. Thank you to each of you that provided critical feedback on our post-IMEC feedback surveys supporting our work on these fronts - we value your input and feedback as we look at programs for the 2022-2023 school year and beyond!
One particular area that we have been working to refine is the Jazz Auditions process. Based on the results provided by the feedback surveys, it has been made very clear that educators around the state prioritize transparency and clarity as they relate to the jazz auditions and selection processes. While auditions are of course an inherently subjective process, adjudicators are tasked with providing objective feedback in the form of a score, which then it used to determine a student’s ensemble placement – this is a complex process with many steps, involving adjudicators and district reps working on their own separate parts of this process around the state; it is our responsibility to remove the potential for human error from this process and ensure the ensemble rosters accurately reflect the results of the students’ hard work.
At the Spring 2022 Meeting, the ILMEA Board of Directors voted to implement changes to the Jazz audition process. After a careful examination of current practice and the procedures used by other states and national organizations, we feel very strongly that the new procedures and policies include a clear set of objective practices designed to benefit our students and directors. The official Policy Manual is now updated with the changes voted on by the board of directors (www.ilmea.org/about) and these changes will be implemented starting with auditions in the Fall of 2022:
A requirement for all trumpet players that will indicate their ability to play a lead part in the ensembles
Streamlined improvisation audition for Instrumental and Vocal Jazz
Codified student numbers for the All-State Vocal Jazz and Instrumental Jazz ensembles
Adjusted scoring in audition rubrics to account for the removal of sightreading
Selection for All-State ensembles will be objective moving forward, with the top students on each instrument or voice part being considered and judged by an independent panel of judges; This will allow for selection of the best possible ensembles and maintain our focus on geographic District representation at the All-State level.
We have a responsibility to set standards for equity and accessibility so that we can best serve student musicians in Illinois and we are also aware that many other states also look to us as leaders as they refine their own practices and policies. We are so grateful to our membership for their honesty and attention to detail as we continue to modernize and adapt to the opportunities presented by technology; opportunities that enable us to remove barriers to participation from every student, in all corners of the state.