Senior district auditions recap

Credit: Caroline Raymond

Wayland Middle School musicians at the 2017 masquerade concert. Students in grades 7-9 will have the opportunity to audition for junior districts later this year.

Caroline Raymond, Caitlin Newton
November 21, 2017

Senior district auditions were this past Saturday for orchestra, band and chorus students. More than 50 Wayland High School students in grades nine through 12 auditioned for the highly competitive group.

“It’s a huge list. We have about 50 kids auditioning,” fine arts director Susan Memoli said. “There are students from band, orchestra and chorus, and some of the band kids are auditioning for jazz.”

For many incoming freshmen, it was their first opportunity to audition for senior districts.

“Their chances are pretty slim considering our district is pretty competitive, but if they don’t make it they can audition for junior districts which are grades seven through nine, so a lot of those kids wait and audition for junior districts,” Memoli said.

It was sophomore Mallory Leonard’s first time auditioning for senior districts. Leonard made junior districts last year as a ninth grader. This year, she was able to attend a mock audition to help take some of the stress off of her first audition.

Credit: Mallory Leonard
Violinist Mallory Leonard practices a piece. She tried out for junior districts as a freshman and is auditioning for senior districts as a sophomore.

Students were selected based on how they were rated by the judge. Judges rated the students based on a general rubric for each person who auditioned.

Since senior districts are highly competitive, getting selected is an impressive accomplishment. Many musicians at WHS have spent a lot of time practicing for this event. The audition piece was selected in the spring, but students did not know which part of the piece they would be performing until they arrived at the audition. Therefore, it was important that they were comfortable with the whole piece, so the selected part would not be entirely new.

“These are kids that are performing at a very high level, so I think that they would be doing this preparation anyway,” Memoli said. “It just kind of forces them to be ready in areas they might not be as particular at, such as scales. Scales are rated, [and the] prepared piece is rated. They also have to do sight reading.”

This may seem like a lot of pressure to some people, but the students auditioning have been used to this. The extra practice and work may not add pressure, but it sure is an extra challenge.

“There are about 140 violinists auditioning, which is more than ever before,” Leonard said. “[Although] that means there are fewer spots, I think I’ve done the most preparation I could.”

Leonard has been playing the violin since she was four; however, she claimed both her and her peers were very nervous about auditioning. Some selected students will also have the opportunity to audition for all-states after they make senior districts.

“For the masquerade concert, we had seven violinists who [had a solo] on the senior district audition piece with the orchestra, so again another layer of preparation,” Memoli said. “They want to do really well, [but] here’s the kicker: if they score within the top 50 percent, then they get the opportunity to audition for all-states.”

All-states is another competition for hard-working musicians, which is even more selective than senior districts. Only the top half of students who made senior districts were recommended to audition for all states.

“The good news is [that] a lot of kids have been doing [auditioning] since seventh grade when they auditioned for junior districts,” Memoli said. “They are used to this protocol, so it does not add additional stress. They are just challenging themselves, and they want to have this extra performance opportunity.”

The auditions may seem scary to some people, but to many of these musicians, it’s second nature. Not only do senior districts and all-states make a statement about a student’s musical abilities, they also make an impact on a student’s college application.

“These are huge accomplishments that are also resumé builders,” Memoli said. “When you can say to a college ‘I made senior districts,’ [or] ‘I made all-states,’ that totally differentiates you from even your other peers who are musicians. I think that’s why the [musicians] choose [to audition] because they want to take that challenge and push themselves to the next level.”

If students made senior districts, they were not necessarily recommended for all-states because they needed to be placed into the upper half of the violinists in senior districts. However, making senior districts is still a huge accomplishment for many musicians, according to Memoli.

The auditions were held on Saturday, November 18. The artists competed against the musicians not only from WHS but from other surrounding schools for a spot in senior districts. 25 WHS musicians were accepted into senior districts with 13 achieving a score high enough to earn an all state recommendation.

Senior District Results:

Samantha Baron, orchestra

Andrew Briasco-Stewart, band

Clarissa Briasco-Stewart, orchestra

Daniel Cai, chorus

Rachel Chau*, orchestra

Kara Chuang, band

Jen Curran, chorus

Julia de los Reyes*, orchestra

Will Gardner, chorus

Sid Iyer*, chorus

McKenna Kelemanik*, band