Saratoga students play in County Honor band

January 15, 2009 — by Elizabeth Cheng

Free on Sunday, Jan. 18, and looking for a musical experience? Go watch members of the Santa Clara County Honor Band perform a concert at Gunn High.

Free on Sunday, Jan. 18, and looking for a musical experience? Go watch members of the Santa Clara County Honor Band perform a concert at Gunn High.

The members auditioned to be a part of the band mid-December at San Jose State University. Students played a solo piece and 12 major scales for a panel of judges. Many Saratoga students tried out.

“I had gone through this audition process the previous year, so I knew what to expect and I was definitely more relaxed this time around,” said senior bass-clarinet Tejas Mulye.

With many students, the auditioning process was long and tiring. “I had to wait for 2 1/2 hours for my audition, so that made anxieties run high. The wait was the toughest part of the evening,” said Mulye. “I felt relieved when I finally entered the room because the tension was finally over.”

In early December, auditions for the band’s soloist were held. Of the five that auditioned, four were Saratoga students. The honor was given to senior Aaron Garg.

Garg and Mulye were joined by 27 students who were also accepted into the band, includingseniors Andrew Buchanan, Elizabeth Chin, Grant Fukui, Julia Glausi, Keita Hasegawa, Matt Leung, Tiffany Lin, Chris Rea, Christina Robert, Austin Shieh, Sandra Sotiriadis, juniors Guillaume Bellegarda, Dana Burley, Victor Chan, Terran Chao, Taylor Chin, Priyanka Hardikar, Steven Hong, Vincent Huang, Zachary Jacobs, Dhruv Seshadri, Steven Sung, Mitchell Turpin, sophomores Kyle Fukui, Nick Renda, Jane Shin and freshman Tony Glausi.

“I prefered the songs from last year, but I am sure this year’s concert will turn out just as well,” said Mulye.

All-state band results
The members of the all-state band were announced early this month. Instead of live auditions, students sent tape recordings of themselves playing particular pieces. Saratoga sent 20 tapes, which is the maximum allowed from each school.

The tapes were judged for admittance into either the Fresno band or the three Ontario bands. The Fresno band will play a concert in February and the Ontario bands will play in March with the All-state orchestra.

The following students were accepted into the band: seniors Elizabeth Chin, Aaron Garg, Julia Glausi, Matt Leung, Tiffany Lin, Chris Rea, Austin Shieh, Sandra Sotiriadis, juniors Victor Chan, Terran Chao, Zach Jacobs, sophomore Kyle Fukui, Jane Shin, Jason Shiuan and freshmen Tony Glausi.

All-state orchestra results will be announced later this month.

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