received 12 letters of acceptance for students selected to participate in this year’s All-State Music Festival, which will be held in late November in Rochester, New York.
The annual festival, sponsored by the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA), is considered the highest honor a school musician can attain.
In order to be accepted a musician must receive a perfect score in a formal audition performance, requiring preparation and performance of a level six (most difficult) solo, a sight-reading exam, and performance of thirteen scales.
Teachers sponsoring these students include Robin Maddox for strings, Louise O’Hanlon for the vocalists and Scott Stickley for the band students.
Over 6,000 high school sophomores and juniors audition for All-State each year and only eight hundred are accepted state-wide.
While in Rochester, the students will rehearse and perform with nationally recognized conductors in musical ensembles including a wind ensemble, a symphonic band, a symphony orchestra, a string orchestra, a mixed choir, a women’s choir, a jazz ensemble and a vocal jazz ensemble. All performances take place at the historic Eastman Theatre in downtown Rochester.
The selected students are:
- Esther Chen, violin
- Ellen Cooper, violin
- Meera Desai, soprano
- Angel Ding, violin
- Zachery Elgort, snare drum
- Ravina Jain, cello
- Seung Ho (Brian) Park
- Nathaniel Ramdhany, viola
- Lee Ann Serrano, violin
- Joslyn Thomas, Alto
- Jesse Torres, Tenor Saxophone
- Kevin Yu, violin
