From Wednesday, Jan. 29 to Saturday, Feb. 1, orchestra, band and choir students participated in All-State, an opportunity for students to meet other talented musicians, perform difficult pieces and work with esteemed conductors. To qualify, players had to pass the All-State audition. 

“The audition excerpts are generally between 10 to 30 measures in length and the difficulty on each varies,” Margaret Leung (12) said. “There’s always a melody piece, a technique piece and the third one is a wild card.”

For Leung, this year was her second time at All-State and her last time as a senior. 

“My first year at the All-State’s audition, I was pretty nervous, but I found that letting yourself take some time to calm down and set up is the best solution,” Leung said. “This year was fine, just a little bit of general performance anxiety but since I’ve already done some college level music auditions, I saw that the All-State auditions weren’t so bad in comparison.”

Throughout her time at All-State, Leung’s schedule involved numerous strenuous rehearsals, hours of playing on end and also required the necessary resolve to keep up with the demand.

“I [would] wake up at 6:30, get my instrument still in the case from last night’s rehearsal [which] lasted until 12 am and proceed like a zombie to sectionals for the morning,” Leung said. 

This year, orchestra had two pieces: one that was contemporary American and the other contemporary Italian.

“[We played] “Pines of Rome” with four movements all describing a historical part of Rome,” Leung said. “The opening is of the populated square, the second of the catacombs, and it ends with the march to the city itself.”

Though lengthy and demanding rehearsals are tough to navigate, the result always makes it worth it. 

“Generally my favorite part of playing music is playing with others,” Leung said. “Seeing the fruits of your hard-worked labor or at least hearing it, you just know that the hours you’ve invested were worth it.”