Seven members of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts band turned in noteworthy performances at the Region II All-Region band auditions.
Juniors Merin Duke of Pine Bluff, Kevin Fialkowski of Heber Springs, Hunter Hill of DeWitt, Yeongwoo Hwang of Jonesboro, Katelyn Lauderdale of Cabot, Tara Moses of Arkadelphia and Whitney Schug of Paragould each qualified for the Region II All-Region Band Clinic that will be held Jan. 25-26 at Lake Hamilton High School in Pearcy.
Auditions for the band were held Jan. 8 at Lake Hamilton Junior High in Pearcy. Every ASMSA student who auditioned qualified for the all-region band.
ASMSA band director Mary Alice Chambers said this was probably the best showing the band has made in the past eight years.
“The results just kept coming in and kept getting better and better every score sheet I saw,” Chambers said.
Duke, Fialkowski, Hwang, Lauderdale, Moses and Schug also each qualified to audition for the all-state band on Feb. 2 at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. If they qualify for the all-state band, they will participate in the Arkansas State Music Conference to be held Feb. 14-16 at the Hot Springs Convention Center.
The students’ scores determined whether they made first or second all-region band and which chair (or ranking by instrument) they received. ASMSA students’ rankings were:
- Duke made first band, first chair in oboe. She said she has been playing the oboe since the sixth grade. Its unique sound drew her to the instrument, she said.
“It kinda has a reedy sound. It’s really unique. It’s not super high or super low,” she said.
She qualified to audition for all-state last year at her home school, Watson Chapel, but wasn’t able to attend, so this will be her first year to audition for all-state. She said she will have to work hard to make all-state.
“I know what good oboe players sound like, and I know there are a lot of good oboe players in Arkansas. If I want to make it, I’ll have to practice a lot,” Duke said.
- Hwang made first band, second chair for clarinet. He said he finished only four points behind the person who finished in first chair.
Hwang said the clarinet drew his interest while on vacation in South Korea when he was younger. He decided to play the instrument in the sixth grade in his school band while living in Indiana.
“It has an awesome range, second only to piano,” he said. “It is a diverse instrument and can make an awesome tone.”
He qualified for all-state band last year but didn’t get to attend the all-state band’s performance. He hopes he will get another all-state opportunity this year.
“It’s awesome to play with great performers,” he said.
- Schug made first band, second chair for flute. It is the sixth year she has been playing flute and she moved up eight chairs in her all-region audition this year. It will be the first year she will get to audition for all-state band.
She originally wanted to play alto saxophone, but there were already too many people playing the instrument in beginning band. She did learn to play the alto saxophone about four years ago, but she said the “flute is my baby.”
Schug said she didn’t expect to place as highly as she did.
“I was expecting second band at best,” she said. But when she found out she had done much better than that, she said she screamed and turned to her friends and started crying.
“It’s the first time I’ve cried tears of joy,” she said.
She said she couldn’t have done as well as she did without the help of her home-school band director, Peggy Jeffries at Nettleton High School in Jonesboro, and co-director Grant Brinkle. Schug said she called Jeffries the morning after all-region editions to let Jeffries now about her performance and to thank her.
- Lauderdale was named first band, fifth chair for flute. She said she originally wanted to play the clarinet when she first started in band but ended up playing the flute instead. She said she’s very happy she ended up with the flute.
“I was like a natural” with the flute, she said. “And I could not play the clarinet for my life.”
Lauderdale said she qualified to audition for all-state band last year and learned one important thing — “to loosen up and not be too nervous.”
Battling her nerves was the hardest part of the all-region audition, she said. “I usually get nervous a lot when I try out and go too fast and mess up,” she said.
- Fialkowski made first band, third chair for clarinet. He said he chose to play the clarinet because he liked the instrument’s tone.
“I wasn’t really for all the big brass,” he said.
He qualified for the all-state band last year at his home school, Heber Springs High School, and hopes to make it two years in a row. He knows he will have to keep practicing to build up for all-state tryouts.
But until then he is looking forward to attending the all-region band clinic.
“I always look forward to the clinic. It’s harder music in a setting that our home bands don’t necessarily have access to,” he said.
- Hill made second band, first chair for alto saxophone. He said the alto saxophone’s versatility was what drew him to the instrument.
“I always thought the saxophone was the coolest instrument growing up,” he said. “I saw all the styles a saxophone could play — including jazz and the blues — and thought that was the coolest thing.”
Hill said he was a little nervous auditioning for the first time in a new region. “What made me nervous was that I was told the saxophones in this region were really good, and that’s what kind of threw me off.”
However, auditioning in a new region and qualifying to participate in the region clinic later this month has its advantages. “I really like meeting new people, whether it’s in band camp or in region. It’s cool being able to meet these people at places like that and connecting with them,” he said.
- Moses was named to first band, 15th chair for the clarinet.
For the auditions, students were required to learn three or four pieces of music from which they would play several measures, play scales for their instrument by memory and sight-read and play a short piece of music that they had not seen before auditions. Chambers said students were given the first pieces music to learn when the fall semester began, received practice CDs in October and had individual rehearsals throughout the semester.
Judges blindly scored the student auditions, Chambers said. Each band director who had students auditioning served as a judge, she said, but judges could not see the students as they auditioned. Students were behind a screen as they performed.
All-state auditions will be conducted in a similar fashion, Chambers said.
Chambers said all-state auditions are a great opportunity to showcase their talents for college band conductors. She said band conductors from all of the state colleges will be in attendance and use the auditions as an opportunity to seek out talent for their bands.
“They will be there recruiting big time,” Chambers said of the conductors. “If you make all-state, you are pretty much guaranteed a full ride at one of the colleges. It’s like college football coaches coming to football games and looking for top players..