Nervousness was naturally building, Meaghan Bare confessed, as she sorted through a lapful of note-riddled pages.

But as instruments rasped and fluttered through scales around her on Thursday afternoon, the final fervent preparation before the All State Band rehearsal, the Lake City High School freshman also felt elan.

"The sound is just amazing," said Bare, 15, clasping her flute in the Boswell Hall rehearsal room at North Idaho College. "To have so many people, and all the best in Idaho."

A handful of Kootenai County students are immersed in rare musical opportunities this week, at the 31st biennial All State Music Conference, put on by the Idaho Music Educators Association.

Hosted in Coeur d'Alene for only the second time, the multi-day conference includes education seminars for 200 music teachers from across the state, with focus on essentials like new teaching technology, finding teaching jobs, and more esoteric subjects like "Care and Feeding of Your Trumpet Section," all at the Coeur d'Alene Best Western Inn.

"It's an opportunity to collaborate with other educators from around the state and share ideas and gain some new knowledge. Get re-energized to make it through the end of the year," said Gary Gemberling, past IMEA president and music representative of the Idaho High School Activities Association. "It's a tight-knit group of educators, and we don't get to see enough of each other and what's happening in everyone's classroom."

On top of that, roughly 600 music students from schools across the state, each selected after submitting audition tapes, have also converged at NIC this week for the conference. Since Wednesday, the students have been quickly rehearsing before performing advanced band, orchestra and choir pieces.

The young musicians are described as the best of their age in the state, Gemberling said. They will be working this week under venerable guest conductors they wouldn't encounter in typical classroom settings, he said.

"It's a big deal," Gemberling said. "They come back to their schools with new ideas, perfected things they learned."

Bare, whose faithful practicing and private lessons are just a hobby at this point, said she is treating the experience as a learning opportunity.

"Having a different director, he has a different style, and it really helps my style of music," she said.

Taylor Lott, a saxophone player from Nampa High School, said he was relieved to have been deemed worthy for a spot.

"I always felt I was never good enough," the 18-year-old said as he waited for rehearsal to start. "It's a big experience. You get to learn a lot of new things with more advanced people."

The Lake City High Symphonic Band also performed this week for a crowd of educators at the conference, said school conductor Tim Sandford.

The concert garnered a standing ovation, he said.

"That's enough for me," Sandford said of what he has gained from the conference.

He added that students performing this week are glimpsing what it's like to make music with a massive but polished group.

"Unlike sports, where there's competition, this is a collaborative venture to make something beautiful," Sandford pointed out. "The opportunity to perform in a group of kids who are the best from all the schools is such a great experience. They experience such a wider, bigger sound."

All-State performances are scheduled for Saturday at NIC's Schuler Auditorium.

All-State Honor Treble Choir and Mixed Choir will perform at 1 p.m. The All-State Honor Orchestra and Honor Band will perform at 3:15 p.m.

Making All State spruces up a resume for scholarships and college applications, acknowledged Nampa High School student Jordan Williams.

But students audition and make the trip for a bigger reason, the 16-year-old clarinet player said.

"We're all here because we love music," she said. "Otherwise we wouldn't have gone to so much trouble."