After last year’s festivals, I made note of the most common mistakes we encountered. Please double and triple-check the NYSSMA manual fine print and your student registration information on Da Capo. Some common mistakes from last year:

 

  • All-State Applications MUST be filled out 6 weeks prior to the festival date. This must be done on the NYSSMA website: All-State Application. Students who do NOT have an accompanying All-State application will automatically be lowered to a regular Level 6 and are no longer eligible for All-State ensembles. 

 

  • Jazz students must be registered in Da Capo as a jazz solo. These students must be placed in a jazz room and we must order a jazz scoresheet for them. They are heard by a jazz adjudicator. For example, please do not register a jazz trumpet player as “Brass solo” – this will automatically place them in a regular (non-jazz) brass room with a non-jazz adjudicator and a non-jazz scoresheet. Please select “Jazz solo” from the dropdown menu so that your student is scheduled in the correct room and with the correct form, otherwise, we have to scramble the day of their solo so make sure we have room in the adjudicator’s schedule AND that we have an extra jazz scoresheet. 

 

  • You may not register a student for a festival that they are not zoned for without permission of BOTH festival hosts and myself, the Zone Representative. Please book field trips and schedule school musicals around the festival dates so we can limit the amount of variances to other festivals. This is a very time-consuming process that, in some cases, must be approved by people in the NYSSMA office and most can be avoided with careful planning.

 

  • Please make sure that you have the current NYSSMA Manual (ed. 33 with GREEN tabs) that went into effect July 1, 2022. You can order a new one here.

 

  • Students must have ORIGINALS of their sheet music. Students who bring photocopies will not be permitted to perform. One original is necessary, two is preferred so the adjudicator has their own. If purchasing a digital download, please bring an email receipt as proof of purchase.