I Am the Solo And Ensemble Adjudicator - Anglea Lieber

Kris Pfeiffer

I Am the Solo and Ensemble Adjudicator
Angela Lieber


I am here for one purpose.


Equipped with my blue and golden rod papers

From the director quieting kids outside,

I am here to quench my critiquing thirst for

My next victims of pleasant intimidation.


They may get a one, they may get a two,

It depends on who they are, and even I don’t know who.

My falcon eyes scan their fidgety fingers

And feel their racing pulse through the notes and rhythms played.


I can tell they’ve practiced for months

But that doesn’t matter to me,

I am here for one purpose

And that one purpose only.


I hear a trumpeter miss an accidental,

And though beautiful slurs he makes,

I can not, I will not, let that accident go.

So I give him a one-minus for the show.


I write lovingly to a clarinet,

“If you played louder, you’d sound better I bet.”

And though his face is the coldest blue,

That dynamic just won’t do.


And as a red faced flute flutters right out the door,

I call for the next, I call out for more.

“Bring them in” I say aloud in my mind,

Let me dish what I’ve long wanted to feed my own kind.


I have driven 40 miles to teach these kids right

Because I could not stand my own band’s performance last night.

But through the encouraging words I give to my school,

I can not go on without picking at another.


I am here for one purpose.


Equipped with my pencil and musical mastery

From the work of my hard years that wear on my skin,

I am here to soothe my own troubles,

And to put these kids in the position I was once in.