For several high school musicians, their dream is to be able to play music at the highest level achievable.

For some Manhattan High musicians, that dream came true as the music department made it into the state performance which included only the best programs in the state.

Junior Matthew Choi was able to make it to second violin, sixth chair, meaning he was seated 26th overall out of the students who qualified for the performance.

“It was an experience that is very hard to fathom,” Choi said. “It feels really good if you’re part of that group because everyone there is at the top level. It just feels really amazing to be able to play wonderful music.”

Several members from the band, choir and orchestra department were able to audition and  make it into the state performance that happened on Friday. Four students participated from choir, two students from band and eight students from band.

To have a total of 14 students qualify for the state performance takes several hours of hard work.

“It gave a feeling of gratitude,” senior Raegan Poulson said. “It felt like all of the work that the previous classes before us put in finally paid off along with our hard work. Experiencing this performance made it feel like we were finally becoming a good family orchestra. It felt really amazing to be able to go they’re and play the music that we had been working so hard on.”

The orchestra performed several pieces, including one that stood out to the crowd.

“[Butterfly Lovers] is a very inspiring piece,” Poulson said. “It’s sort of like a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ piece because the end of the piece has more of a transcendence feel, it’s very motivational and an all around beautiful piece. From what I’ve heard the crowd seemed to really enjoy that piece.”

Although the state competition usually means the end of the season for several activities, it does not mean the same for the music department.

“[The MHS music department] is going to audition for the midwest competition as a whole and try to get into that and perform that,” Choi said. “I think we can make it, I think we definitely have the potential to achieve great things and play wonderful music at the highest level.”

While music departments makes the arrangements for that performance, they will continue enlightening MHS. The band department’s next performance is next Tuesday and the choir department’s next concert is on March 14.