News Brief: 11 WHS students accepted into 2020 MA All-State Festival
Credit: Jonathan Zhang
Junior Mingle Li is practicing in the WHS band room for the upcoming All-State Festival. While Li secured a spot in the 2020 MA All-State Festival, preparation is essential. “I’m enormously proud of all the students who earned the recommendation, because that in itself is an incredible distinction and for a school of our size to have 11 kids accepted,” Director of the Fine Arts Department Susan Memoli said.
February 3, 2020
11 students from WHS have been accepted into the 2020 MA All State Festival:
Megan Chau, sophomore: Strings, Violin
Gabriel de los Reyes, sophomore: Strings, String Bass
McKenna Kelemanik, senior: Winds, Tuba
Mingle Li, junior: Percussion, Mallets
Angela Liu, sophomore: Strings, Violin
Cecelia Murphy, senior: Winds, Oboe
Connor Rader, junior: Strings, String Bass
Ryan Urato, senior: Strings, Violin
Angela Yan, sophomore: Strings, Violin
Adrian Yemin, freshman: Strings, Viola
Joshua Zhang, sophomore: Winds, Trombone
20 out of 22 recommended WHS students auditioned for the festival, and 11 of them met the threshold. Auditions tested a student’s ability on all major minor scales, a prepared piece and sight-reading. Then, if a students score is high enough, they are accepted into either the band, orchestra, jazz band or chorus.
To obtain an All-State recommendation, students had to have received a scoring grade within the top 50th percentile of their section during their audition for the Eastern Senior Districts Festival.
“I’m enormously proud of all the students who earned the recommendation because that in itself is an incredible distinction,” Fine Arts Department Head Susan Memoli said. “For a school of our size to have 11 kids accepted, it’s really a testimony to their musicianship, their hard work, their effort and what phenomenal student musicians they are, so I’m really proud of them.”
