On March 23 and 24, Great Neck North High School held the annual NYSSMA piano festival. Active students in the music department of Great Neck North High School or Great Neck South High School, volunteer to run the event.

Performing for an adjudicator is a nerve-wracking experience, students who volunteer are there to ease the flow of the event to prevent students and parents from becoming more nervous. Students of Great Neck North can volunteer as a monitor or a runner. Monitors sit at desks outside each room and check that the participants are in the correct room and match the requirements according to the manual. Runners collect the score sheets from each of the judges.

Every spring, NYSSMA conducts approximately 145 solo festivals in New York State. At the piano festival, each participant is graded according to a performance evaluation scored by a judge. This evaluation requires playing a graded solo from the NYSSMA manual, playing three scales, and sight reading a small excerpt given by the adjudicator.

Participants can choose a level one through six, six being the most difficult of the other five. Not only does the difficulty of the pieces in the NYSSMA manual increase, but the difficulty of the preparation of scales and sight-reading increases. For levels one and two, each participant is required to prepare three scales. For levels three and four, students need to prepare seven scales, performing just three of them which are chosen at random. Levels five and six require the preparation of all 15 scales in which the participant must play all three randomly. Not only do the number of scales increase, but the rhythm and pace of the quarter note increases, meaning that how fast one must play the scale increases as well.

Attending the festival requires determination and commitment beforehand. This annual event is the result of the hard work of many piano students. The Great Neck North High School music department  welcomes those who devide to take part of this festival.