29 Alachua County Public School students selected for Florida All State music ensembles

Yahoo! News | Gershon Harrell, The Gainesville Sun | December 13, 2021

Gershon Harrell, The Gainesville SunMon, December 13, 2021, 3:46 PM·3 min read

Alachua County Public Schools is celebrating the selection of 29 students who have won spots in the 2021 Florida All State bands, choruses and orchestras.

The event is organized by the Florida Music Education Association (FMEA). The selected students will travel to Tampa Jan. 12-15 where the FMEA conference will be held at the Tampa Convention Center.

According to the press release, students will have the opportunity to perform with other young musicians in the state.

The FMEA is a nonprofit education association that supports music education across the state of Florida. Curriculum Specialist for Fine Arts Diana Rollo said the Florida All State conference is a time for all the music educators in the state of Florida to come together and learn new tools to educate students in music. The convention didn’t happen last year due to COVID-19.

She said for students who are chosen for the All State ensembles it can be a prestigious event that can follow them as they move on to college.

“When you’re considered one of the top students in the state, it’s certainly something that you would want to put on your resume. It’s something that colleges and universities look at when they’re auditioning students for their programs,” Rollo said.

Some colleges and universities set up booths at the convention to recruit students, Rollo said.

Elementary, middle and high school students have to go through an audition process to be selected for the All State ensembles. Rollo said auditions normally take place in late September or early October. In November students found out they were selected.

The audition process is divided between the students who play instruments and the students who sing. During the audition students are asked to play music scales, read music and play or sing audition pieces.

“Basically they’re given a piece of music that they have never seen before. They get a certain amount of time to look it over and figure it out, and then they have to play it,” Rollo said.

It’s a blind audition, students are recorded as they play their instrument during the audition process.

Students who sing have two separate auditions. The first round will encompass a written exam and a sight-singing exam. Students are given five exercises and they’re instructed to sing the music notes presented.

Here are the 29 selected students:

Wiles Elementary School

• Fiona Xu, 4th grade

• Louisa McGargill, 4th grade

• Quinn Curchy, 4th grade

• Anabel Khokhlov, 5th grade

• Nicolas Thivierge, 5th grade

• Olivia Pettiford, 5th grade

• Parker Kryzkowski, 5th grade

• Rachel Dai, 5th grade

• Laura Castineyra, 5th grade

Fort Clark Middle School

• Evan Rotchford, 8th grade

Lincoln Middle School

• Alexander Hsu, 7th grade

• Chris Jeong, 7th grade

• Isaac Son, 7th grader

• Matheus Ribeiro Do Valle, 7th grade

• Sarah Yan, 8th grade

Oakview Middle School

• Anna Weitz, 8th grade

Buchholz High School

• Cadence Smith, 12th grade

• Isabelle Tseng, 11th grade

• Samuel Cohen, 11 grade

• William Guan, 10th grade

• Alicia Parfait, 9th grade

• Jackson Green, 9th grade

• Madelyn Urbine, 9th grade

• Nolan Gao, 9th grade

Eastside High School

Elizabeth Offerle, 10th grade

Isaac Savin, 10th grade

Gainesville High School

• Diamond Vo, 10th grade

• Malik Mullino, 11th grade

Newberry High School

• Jonathan Pruim, 10th grade

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua County to send 29 students to state music festival in Tampa