Mackey makes All-State Band

"Making All-State Band is the highest recognition a Montanan musician can make," Malta High School band teacher Erik Engebretson said. "You're competing with all classifications, AA, A, B and C. It's mostly AA students. It's a display of the best musicians in Montana and Bella was a part of that."

Malta junior Bella Mackey, earned All-State Band honors as a flute player and attended the 2016 All-State Band, Chorus and Orchestra Festival held at the Mansfield Theater at the Civic Center in Great Falls on October 19-21.

Mackey qualified for state after auditioning for the honors last June. She found out that she made All-State on the second day of the 2016-17 school year.

"It was really exciting," Mackey said. "I know a lot of kids who made it took private lessons and that's not something that I've had the opportunity to do so it was exciting to know that I could do it without private lessons."

Though she had made state, she had another audition on October 19 as the All-State band auditioned to see where they would play during the event.

"We worked on the specific parts that your instrument would have," Mackey said. "That was all we did that night and then the next two days were pretty much full of rehearsals from eight