Isabelle Gecils

Kuroda-Ren plays the marimba.

Excitement rushed through Sarah Kuroda-Ren as she performed her first solo percussion piece during her freshman year. For her, finding joy through musical instruments was how she adjusted to living in America. 

For the first 12 years of her life, Kuroda-Ren, now a junior, lived in Japan. When she moved to Saratoga with her family during the COVID-19 pandemic, she started sixth grade online at Redwood Middle School.

Kuroda-Ren mentioned that in Japan, her teachers were much stricter because they wanted to foster an environment where students learned to be more patient. She recalls not being able to drink water during P.E. or while teachers were talking, as that was taken as being disrespectful.

When she moved here, Kuroda-Ren had no idea how to speak English other than saying “goodbye” and “hello,” making it difficult for her to make friends. To improve, she bought English books and woke up early every morning to memorize new words. Regardless of her effort, the pandemic prevented Kuroda-Ren from practicing English with others in real-world settings, making it challenging for her to learn English grammar.

When pandemic restrictions died down, Kuroda-Ren went back to in-person school after spring break of sixth grade. She made her first friend, Kathlyn Zhang, who is now also a junior. Zhang helped Kuroda-Ren develop her English skills through drawing cartoons. 

In seventh grade, Kuroda-Ren joined the Redwood orchestra and took up violin, passing auditions for the advanced orchestra in eighth grade. However, her interest in music took a turn when she saw a YouTube vlog from Irene Lin, a percussionist who attended Homestead High and now attends Stanford University. Her vlog about going to the WGI World Championship in Dayton, Ohio, inspired Kuroda-Ren to join the RMS band as a percussionist.

During her freshman year, Kuroda-Ren joined the marching band here playing the vibraphone, which consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. After the season, she learned about the World Class, the advanced winter percussion ensemble for experienced performers. 

Auditioning as a marimba player, Kuroda-Ren wanted to join because they went to the same championship as Lin had, which had been her dream since eighth grade. However, she did not have much experience with the instrument and was unable to secure a place.

Instead, Kuroda-Ren joined the school’s Winter Percussion A-Class in freshman year as its center marimba, the best position in the front ensemble. She also dedicated a lot of time to practice in order to improve.

“I practiced a lot after getting cut from the World Class,” she said. “I practiced at least four hours after school every day and skipped lunch and tutorials to practice, too. In May 2024, there was a percussion concert where I played a marimba solo, and that was a life-changing moment for me.”

Kuroda-Ren’s intense practice paid off when she was able to get the marimba position in the marching band and winter percussion in sophomore year. However, she struggled as the only sophomore marimba player, and she worked to balance rehearsals at least four times a week on top of schoolwork.

She considered quitting due to the large time commitment percussion required. To distract herself from the stress, she went on a trip to Carmel with her mom and saw Lin, her role model, there as a coincidence. 

“I was planning on quitting percussion,” Kuroda-Ren said. “I saw [Irene Lin], and realized that it was a miracle and I should keep practicing. I talked to Mr. Shiuan about how much I struggled and he was really encouraging, he also gave me [Lin’s] contact information.”

Meeting and talking to Lin in person motivated Kuroda-Ren to continue percussion, and she has been doing it ever since. While she still has trouble managing her time, especially during junior year, she enjoys the supportive environment of the class.

Because of Kuroda-Ren’s strong passion for playing the marimba, she hopes to possibly take percussion as a college minor in the future. She also tutors students from Japan on the weekends and plans to major in education. 

“Since my mom was a teacher in Japan and my dad is a professor at a college, I want to be a teacher and support students who struggle with English like me,” she said.