Late at night, after another day-long marching band competition, Hannah Bui, Summer Shen, Angela Tan and Audrey Wong gathered a collection of crispy chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers and fries from McDonalds and chatted and giggled throughout the night.
The group bonded over moments like these throughout their high school years as flutists in the school music program.
Hannah and Audrey have known each other since they went to Foothill Elementary, with Hannah starting flute in fifth grade and Audrey in sixth grade. Angela started in fifth grade at Blossom Hill Elementary, Summer started during Bret Harte Middle and all four met during high school in freshman band. They point to the 2022 Europe Music Tour as the time that truly brought them together.
“During the tour, we were grouped together and rehearsed a lot together,” Hannah said. “Once our sophomore year started, we started sitting together during lunch and got closer.”
They describe their group’s dynamic as fairly carefree, and they joke around a lot. In Hannah’s eyes, Audrey is the “silly, brain-rot one,” Angela is the “mom of the group,” Summer is the “smart, quiet, kind, compassionate one” and she describes herself as the “stubborn one who speaks her mind.”
The group truly fell into step with one another after rooming together in Europe, spending the late nights talking and gossiping. Their long conversations continued throughout their high school years, moving from hotel rooms in Europe to post-competition fast-food restaurants back in the Bay Area. They also often had pre-Thursday evening rehearsal food runs. Even when the marching band season ended, they found themselves just meeting up to talk and eat together, often going out after school to go to Crumbl or boba runs.
“The marching band schedule really connected us, because we were always together from morning rehearsals to the end of a competition,” Hannah said. “As a section, we’re also very close, since we are the oldest flutes in leadership and communicate with each other to keep the rest of our underclassmen together.”
All four are going to different colleges next year with Summer attending Cornell, Audrey attending Loyola Marymount, Angela attending Purdue and Hannah attending UC Riverside.
“We’re definitely going to visit each other’s colleges,” Summer said. “Band is like a community where you always feel close and you have a place in a school. By having a friend group from a band, you feel even closer.”
