Courtesy of Brandon Chen

Chen taking a selfie with his stand partner at All State.

In the summer before fifth grade, sophomore Brandon Chen started playing the trumpet. 

He was inspired to do so by his brother, Class of ’25 alumnus and trumpeter Aiden Chen. Since then he has maintained a consistent practice schedule of about 30 minutes a day and earned several awards and recognitions for his skills. 

Near the beginning of seventh grade, after learning about the California All-State Music Education Conference (CASMEC) — a major music conference for California music educators, clinicians and student musicians — Chen decided to take music more seriously by auditioning for the All-State Band.

At the time, Chen was not able to get in since the music material expected at that level was far more advanced than the material he had been playing in middle school. However, he chose not to look at the audition as a failure, but rather as an experience that would help him improve.

“The thing about auditions is it’s not only about getting in,” Chen said. “The music they give you is a lot harder than what you normally play, so you improve just by auditioning.”

Additionally, Chen ran into personal misfortune early on in his musical journey. Between seventh grade and eighth grade, his mother passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Because of the emotional stress of the grief he was going through, he was at first hesitant about re-auditioning for All-State. 

“I was originally going to not audition. My dad said ‘It’s a lot of stress, so just don’t do it.’ And so I stopped preparing,” Chen said.

What changed was that he wanted to prove that he could overcome the challenge of getting into All-State, since he wasn’t able to the year before. He decided to keep preparing and working hard, and the next year, he was able to re-audition and qualify for the All-State Symphonic Band.

His improvements did not end there, however. In ninth grade, he went on to get into the SJSU Honors Wind Ensemble, All-State Concert Band and the County Honor Band. In 10th grade, he served as the trumpet section leader for the marching band and attended the All-State Wind Symphony.

Chen said he finds playing music in high school much more challenging than in middle school, having to spend 1-2 hours a day for a month practicing just for auditions. 

He notes that his busiest times tend to be around December to February, as All-State recordings are due in November and seating auditions the following month. Adding to his schedule, he also has County Honor Band auditions from January through February.

Despite these heavy music-related time commitments, Chen wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“It starts out fun to get you into it,” Chen said. “It becomes more and more serious, but you have to keep it fun. Otherwise, yeah, it’ll suck.“

To him, the people and community he meets in music are the best part. 

 “Everybody is really nice,” he said. “And you can meet a lot of different people with a variety of different interests.”

As he becomes an upperclassman next August, Chen hopes to learn more and get better at music. He has already begun to play jazz and hopes to learn more genres and one day be able to play by ear.