On Saturday, January 11th, students from our school performed at the annual High School Honors Concert, which took place at San Joaquin Delta College in the Atherton Auditorium. For those who aren’t familiar with the event, it is a huge and amazing concert held every year at Delta College that consists of orchestra, band, and choir student performers from all around the county. After sending in their auditions, only the very best students from around the county got an invitation to be part of the evening. Weston Ranch sent six students to be part of the High School Honor Band and two students who are in the High School Honor Choir.
“Choir did an excellent job followed by orchestra followed by the band who gave an outstanding performance,” voiced Mr. Barron.
The honor choir students did a fantastic job of entertaining, performing amazing selections- a few being “The Last Words of David” by Randall Thompson, “Gaudette” arranged by Michael Neaum, and “Cabaret” by Fred Ebb and John Kander.
The choir was followed by the honor orchestra who didn’t disappoint, playing songs such as Waltz No.2 by Dimitri Shostakovich, Adagio for Strings, arranged by Samuel Barber, and Wired by Lauren Bernofsky.
After the orchestra left the stage, the honor band performed and played remarkably, playing a few pieces such as Radetzky March, arranged by Johann Strauss, Joy Revisited, by Frank Ticheli, Memento by Travis J. Cross. They closed with Variations on a Korean Folk Song, written by John Barnes Chance.
The Cougars sitting in for this were Veronica Sotelo on alto saxophone, Julian Gonzalez and Abraham Villarreal playing the tuba, and finally, Dharyl Licudine on the string bass.
“It felt amazing to be a part of it (Honor Band). It’s a beautiful experience knowing that you’re one of the best performers in the entire county, and I felt honored,” Sotelo said when asked about how it felt to be a part of such a tremendous performance.
This year’s guest conductor’s name was Dr. Travis J. Cross, and he did a fantastic job of directing and leading the kids during performances and rehearsals.
“You know, the Honors Concert was a great experience, the preparation for it was immense, intense, and extravagant. Dr. Cross was a great guest conductor, and they couldn’t have picked anyone better for this term of guest conductors. This was a pretty good honors concert,” commented Abraham Villarreal.
However, it wasn’t all fun and games for the band members. Dharyl Licudine discussed some of the struggles of being a performer at the concert.
“It was hard because the schedule was back to back and wasn’t spread out. The concert was late and ended at 9, but I’m happy we played music that was good and challenging. I was delighted to be directed by Dr. Travis Cross,” Licudine said. “Performing was scary, but it wasn’t that scary because it was in a group,” she added after being asked if it was nerve-racking being in such an advanced band.
Watching your students perform in a setting like this is very rewarding, and Mr. Barron was quite proud of his students.
“The Honors concert is the best band, orchestra, and choir students performing on one stage,” Barron expressed. “It is the perfect way to describe the entire event. These students truly are the best of the best, and we should all be incredibly proud that they were chosen to represent our school.”
Congratulations again to everyone who performed on Saturday!
Julian Gonzalez, Tuba.
Dharyl Licudine, String Bass
Carlos Lopez, Clarinet.
Veronica Sotelo, Alto Saxophone.
William Gov, Clarinet.
Trisha Kennedy, Director.
Teresa Baca, soprano
Leija Loving, alto
Abraham Villarreal Tuba.
