URBANA — For the second straight year, a remarkable 27 of fine arts executive teacher Rick Murphy's students have been named all-district musicians by the Illinois Music Educators Association.

This year 19 made it at the high school level and eight at the junior district level; in 2008, the honorees numbered 15 and 12, respectively.

At the junior district level, subfreshman Jilli Walch qualified for both the chorus and jazz band, while classmate Troy Xu qualified for band and jazz band.

The students auditioned for IMEA District 3 honors Oct. 12 at Bloomington High School. The results were announced Thursday.

Uni High school IMEA honorees are:

High School Band

• Katherine Floess (jr), clarinet
• Leif Hague (fr), clarinet
• Marie Lilly (so), flute
• Bissy Michael (fr), trumpet
• Liam Moersch (fr), alto sax

High School Chorus

• Erin Berl (fr), soprano
• Katie Buzard (sr), soprano
• Elizabeth Russell (sr), soprano
• Lisa Sproat (jr), soprano
• Juliana Trach (fr), soprano
• Zack Goldberg (sr), tenor

High School Orchestra

• Liz Allen (sr), viola
• Miles Bribriesco (sr), cello
• Chelsea Edwards (fr), violin
• Claire Liu (jr), cello
• Kathy Qiu (so), violin
• Petra Rantanen (fr), cello
• Annie Rong (so), violin
• Francois Dossin (so), flute

Junior High Band*

• George Gunter, flute
• Ali Taylor, flute
• Troy Xu, alto sax

Junior High Orchestra*

• Nathan Beauchamp, viola
• Shawn Lu, violin

Junior High Chorus*

• Valerie Makri, soprano
• Jilli Walch, soprano

Junior High Jazz Band*

• Taharka Baraka, tenor sax
• Jilli Walch, tenor sax
• Troy Xu, alto sax

*All junior high honorees are subfreshmen.

This is Floess' fourth year as an honoree and Rong's third. Eleven students were honored for the second time: Berl, Dossin, Goldberg, Hague, Lilly, Liu, Michael, Qiu, Rantanen, Russell, and Trach.

The district jazz festival is scheduled for Nov. 7 at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. The district junior/senior festival will be held Nov. 21 at Illinois State University in Normal.

The top singers and players from the district level will be recommended for all-state honors. The students who accept will audition at the state level to determine their all-state positions.

The 2010 IMEA All-State Conference will be held Jan. 27-30 in Peoria. The conference will conclude with the IMEA all-state and honors concerts.

So what were the auditions like?

"The actual audition was kind of nerve racking, but we knew what was coming," said junior Claire Liu, who earned orchestra honors as a cellist. "Basically, they give you a piece of music beforehand and you play excerpts from that as well as a couple of scales. There was a lot of sitting of around when you are not auditioning or warming up. But hanging around with friends was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to the district IMEA."