Sauk Valley-area musicians and vocalists will compete Saturday at West Carroll High School in Savanna, one of 15 sectional sites for the Illinois High School Association solo and ensemble evaluations.

Singers and instrumentalists alike have one chance to perform a brief piece – no longer than six minutes in length – before a judge (which in the parlance of the competition is called an adjudicator).

How busy can the day get? Well, the IHSA has a rule that limits a single judge from scoring more than 50 performances in a single day.

For individual instrumentalists alone, there are 16 categories for woodwinds, five for brass horns, seven for drums and other percussion and eight for strings.

Individual vocalists compete in three categories: jazz and musical theater, arias and art songs, and contemporary and commercial.

Ensembles are more complicated. There are 18 instrumental combinations, three vocal (by range), seven instrumental choirs and one vocal choir. Ensembles can have up to eight members, while choirs can have up to 20.

Performers are scored according to their tonal clarity, pitch, rhythm, technique, interpretation and even mannerisms. Judges are instructed to have a high standard for a “superior” score in any given aspect.

Only the top performances score sweepstakes points. An entry gets six points for a Division I-rated performance and three points for a Division II-rated performance.

Schools compete in various enrollment classes. Regardless of where their sectional assignment is, the state makes the final tallies for the entire state and awards the top three schools in each class first, followed by runner-up and third-place awards for their solo, ensemble and organizational competitions.

That third component, organizational, is when the school bands compete at 14 sectional sites April 14 and 15.

At Savanna, there are no Class AA schools, which is the largest enrollment category.

The next smaller enrollment tier is Class A, which will be Dixon and Rock Falls.

There are five Class B schools at Savanna: Byron, Oregon, Port Byron Riverdale, Stillman Valley and Winnebago.

The Class C field includes Amboy, Dakota, Durand, East Dubuque, Forreston, Fulton, Galena, Lanark Eastland, Lena-Winslow, Morrison, Prophetstown, host West Carroll and Newman Central Catholic.

In Class D, there are Freeport Aquin, Hanover River Ridge, Milledgeville, Orangeville, Pearl City, Scales Mound, Stockton and Warren.

In 2022′s singing categories, Milledgeville placed third in the state in Class D, Eastland was second in Class C and Byron was fourth in Class B.

When it comes to best of the day performances, Rock Falls had seven, Oregon had six, Savanna and Byron had four each, Eastland had three, Milledgeville and Forreston each had two, and Newman had one.