A Review of IAA’s Annual Juries

Written by Alex Zampedri

Throughout the month of December, students in the IAA Music division perform for their final major grade, known as juries. It is used as a way to evaluate each student’s growth throughout the semester.

Each Music division student has to participate in juries throughout the year. Juries are the process of performing various materials for the faculty. Each individual department has slight variations in how they work; for the voice department, students sing two pieces, while woodwind players have to do a mixture of excerpts and solo works. 

Students such as the singer-songwriters and composition students choose their primary instrument to perform for the faculty. When second-year senior and composition major Elian Scherer was asked about his opinion of playing piano instead of composition work, he stated, “It’s a good opportunity to push myself as a performer by doing my juries for piano.”

Juries can benefit a student's growth throughout the semester. Choral Director and voice instructor Dr. Carter Smith said, “It gives a tangible goal to work towards; while lessons are developing the process, juries are a mile marker.” 

For every student, juries are extremely important for showing their developing skills. Each student has a different relationship with the process of juries. Third-year senior and violinist Jad Ibrahim said, “I enjoy juries because it is an opportunity to show my improvement.”

Juries are on different days and are set for different times depending on the department. They help show the developing skills of the musicians in the music department, and reinforce the standards for music majors at IAA. It pushes the students to make themselves the best musicians they can.