As part of four days of working alongside the top student musicians in the state, sophomore Brandon Chen and other players in the trumpet section of the California All-State Wind Symphony ensemble walked off the stage of Sacramento’s Memorial Hall on Jan. 17 and rushed up sets of stairs to the balcony, where they stood and played a soft melody behind an audience of hundreds of peers, teachers and other audience members.
This year, the California All-State Music Education Conference (CASMEC) took place from Jan. 15-18, featuring around 15 guest conductors and 1,000 students. Among the attendees were 18 students from SHS, who were selected to participate through a video auditioning process last fall.
The piece Chen was performing, “Anahita” by Roshane Etezady, featured a trumpet section where students were instructed to find a place that was “antiphonal.” In other words, they had to find a place for the music to ring out from a different place than the stage.
“It was really cool because they had us leave the stage in the middle of the piece,” Chen said. “We couldn’t run off stage in the middle of a concert. We had to walk slowly off the stage, and once we were out of view, we started sprinting up the stairs to play our feature.”
The journey to perform started months before for most musicians. For junior bassoonist Ethan C. Lee, preparations started in the summer when the California Band Directors Association released the audition material, which consists of five scales and a number of excerpts varying between instruments.
Throughout the summer and into the school year, students continued practicing their respective pieces until Oct. 15, when recordings were due. The results were released a month later.
The 18 participating SHS students were:
- Orchestra: Freshman Matthew Li, sophomores Isaac Choi and Isaac Ho and juniors Maahi Agarwal and Sarah Jiang
- Band: Freshman Connor Yi, sophomores Brandon Chen, Matthew Lee and Aryan Swamy, junior Ethan C. Lee and seniors Dylan Huang, Anthony Luo and Jet Tsang
- Choir: Sophomore Tania Tang, juniors Misha Khairom and Sanyukta Ravishankar and seniors Sahana Kumar and Joyce Lee
Chen and Matthew Lee were placed in the Wind Symphony; Ethan Lee, Luo and Swamy performed with the Symphonic Band; and Huang, Tsang and Yi were selected to the Concert Band. Agarwal, Jiang and Li performed in the Symphony Orchestra, and Choi and Ho made the String Orchestra. Lee (alto) and Tang (alto) were selected to the SATB High School Choir, and Khairom (alto), Kumar (soprano) and Ravishankar (alto) were selected to the SSAA High School Choir.
(Isaac Ho)
Once students arrived on Jan. 15 in Sacramento for the conference, they went through a blind audition process to determine seating placements and spent the next two days rehearsing with their ensemble. Throughout the weekend, students had the chance to visit an exhibit hall, socialize with musicians around the state and watch each other’s performances.
This was Chen’s third year being selected to all-state and his first year being accepted to the Wind Symphony, the highest-level band at the conference. Chen intends to audition next year as well.
Chen added, “Playing alongside some of the most talented musicians from all over the state and the overall conference experience will be super memorable.”
