The 2013 St. Louis All-Suburban Band performs under the conduction of Joseph Missal at the Ladue Performing Arts Center.

On Nov. 4, Ladue once again welcomed over 500 young musicians from 31 schools to audition for the St. Louis All-Suburban Band.

After a night of auditions, Olivia Adkins, Tyler Christner, Jacob Cytron, Elena Hammann, Miriam Hauptman, Hannah Jacks, Sarah Jacob, Kelly Jacobs, Yoav Kadan, Miles Kim, Shira Morosohk, Caleb Rosenthal, Kate Rubin, Kenji Sherman, Victoria Soncasie and Mary Xiao were chosen as either members or alternates.

Organized by the St. Louis Suburban Music Educators Association (SLSMEA), the St. Louis All-Suburban Band is composed of over 100 of suburban St. Louis’s finest young musicians, as selected by a rigorous audition process. Each year, students who make the band have the opportunity to play in a full ensemble consisting of wind and percussion players from nearby schools.

All students wishing to participate receive music months in advance in preparation for their audition. Audition materials consist of scales and excerpts from various instrumental technique books.

Rooms for each instrument’s auditioning students were distributed school wide. With tens of musicians trying out for each instrument, auditions lasted five minutes each.

Local professionals were invited to judge their respective instrument’s audition. In effort to maintain impartiality, auditions were blind; judges could not see who they were judging.

All students in the band are eligible to compete against other top Missouri musicians into the All-State Band on December 7.

The All-Suburban Band will perform a finale concert Sunday, January 12 at 2 p.m. in the Ladue Performing Arts Center.