Chelsea Jacobson Performs Well At State
Piano Becoming A Passion For PLHS Soph
by Kerry Neil
This time of year PLHS has many students competing in a variety of activities. We sent one talented young lady to play piano at the state level. Chelsea Jacobson is her name, and she is a sophomore at PLHS.
Chelsea is involved in many after school activities, including taking private piano lessons on her own time. Chelsea began studying the complicated motions of making music with a piano at the age of 6. In the beginning, it was something her parents wanted her to get involved in. Now, it’s a hobby she loves and enjoys.
Last year, Chelsea decided she wanted to be at a different level in piano and competed in the Sigma Alpha Iota Sorority competition. After getting the feeling of piano at a competitive level, she wanted more. Continuing to excel in her private lessons with Dr. Sarah Higgins, she decided to challenge herself and entered in the local piano regionals.
Regionals were located at Baker University and were held on February 2. With reality kicking in, Chelsea realized that this was something she wanted for a long time. About 200 kids were there, everybody was split into 3 different rooms and had 7 minutes to get warmed-up and perform. In each room there was one judge and they critiqued on the following: appearance, tempo, dynamics, and pedaling.
In order to qualify for state you must receive a one rating. Chelsea knew what she needed to do to get the job done and the judge felt that Chelsea had what she needed to go all the way to the state competition. Early on the morning of February 16, Mr. Maloun, the band director at PLHS, and Chelsea’s family began the journey to Wichita for her to compete.
There were about 300 students at state and Chelsea believed that she had performed her personal best.
“A small audience was allowed in the room to cheer me on, and I had many family members there to support me as I entered a whole new world of competition,” Chelsea happily said.
The state judge only gave out two one ratings this year at the state competition.
“I received a two rating, a truly believed that I performed the best I ever had, I was very prepared to go in and get a one rating but was proud of myself for doing extremely well,” said Chelsea.
Even though she didn’t place as well as she was hoping, for her first state competition she believed she accomplished a lot.
Chelsea gives much of the credit to her parents for getting her involved with piano at a very young age.
“If it wasn’t for my parents I probably wouldn’t be as talented,
and maybe would have never gotten involved in piano at all,”
Chelsea said.
Chelsea also mentioned, “Mr. Maloun was there for me although the
journey as well.”
Mr. Maloun was responsible for getting Chelsea signed up and ready for competition, turning in all the papers and representing himself as her band instructor.
“If it wasn’t for Mr. Maloun I wouldn’t have been able to enjoy myself at this competitive level,” Chelsea explained. Chelsea represented our school very well as an individual, and plans to continue to do so in the future.
