Last month the Ritenour High School music department went on a tour of Chicago, Ill. to compete in the Chicago Heritage Festival with many other schools.

    The students left Thursday, April 4, and the trip lasted a total of four days. During that time the students explored Chicago and competed in the festival.

    The Chicago Heritage Festival sponsored the trip, including the excursions that the students had.

    While the concert was not taking place the students had their choice of visiting The Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum, or The Chicago Museum of Modern Art.

    The concert took place on Saturday April 6. The Jazz Band, Symphony Band, Concert Band, and Orchestra all competed at Bolingbrook High School, while the choir performed at Plainfield East High School.

    After the concert was over, Ritenour won in every category. Choir, Jazz Band, Symphony and Orchestra earned silver medals, and Concert Band won bronze.

    Band teacher Hadley Haux was very pleased with the performances in Chicago.

   “Our students were great ambassadors of the Ritenour School District, representing our school and community with pride. It was a wonderful educational experience for all, from the higher-order cognitive skills honed at the festival, all the way down to learning that one should cross the street at a crosswalk in the city,” Haux said.

    The Orchestra teacher, Juliana Campbell, agreed with Haux, and thought the concert was satisfactory.

    “Overall the concert went very well, the students participated and behaved excellently,” Campbell said.

    The students that went on the trip agreed with how it went but also had more to say about how they could improve for next year.

    “The concert went pretty good and I enjoyed my time in Chicago, but I think we should have won first. We all tried hard, but I don’t think we did our best,” junior Polina Shevchenko said.

    Sophomore Kaylee Houston agreed with some of the other points made, but did not feel the same way about the concert.

    “The concert did not go as well as I planned it to go. We did not stay together and could have done better than what we did. I believe we could have won if we would have fixed those mistakes,” Huston said.

    Despite the mistakes, Haux and Campbell are proud of the music department and are pleased overall with how the concert went.

    “Ritenour’s music students did a great job at the Heritage Music Festival in Chicago this weekend. Our band, choir and orchestra performed onstage, earning Excellent ratings, and received clinics from adjudicators,” Haux said.