30 CFHS students chosen for All State to perform in Ames

Aaron Parsons/Staff Writer

An impressive 30 students from the orchestra, band and choir were selected for the 2010 Iowa All-State Music Festival. The Festival will take place Thursday to Saturday, Nov. 18-20. They will end with a concert Saturday at Hilton Coliseum in Ames.

For orchestra this year, 10 students were selected including Julia Liu-violin (2nd year), Erik Olsen-violin (3rd year), Hannah Howland-violin (4th year), Katie Yang-violin (1st year), Gwen Farber-viola (2nd year), Elley Bailey-viola (3rd year), Emily Hurban-cello (1st year), Dan Harter-cello (2nd year), Jakob Stoner-bass (4th year) and Ann Fienup-harp (2nd year). Orchestra director Scott Hall said, “ I’m very impressed with the students, they have worked really hard to get where they are.”

Auditions for All-State can be very nerve wracking, but choir students got to try out in groups, which may have helped ease their nerves. “You audition in a group, and it can be up to a quartet, but everyone has to be on different parts. My duet and I auditioned around 10 that morning, and had to wait until around three for the results. It was an agonizing day for all of us having to wait so long,” Mckenzie Sesterhenn said. “All State is a very hard thing to audition for because it’s based off of a live audition and preferences in someone’s voice.”

Four choir students made it this year, including Sarah Welter for Soprano 1, Mckenzie Sesterhenn for Soprano 2, Samantha Takes for Alto 1 and Austin Javellana for Bass 1.
Sixteen CFHS band students were accepted, including Rhydian Talbot for flute; Karl Sadkowski, Josh Carlo, and Justin Marshall for bassoon; Nick Carlo and Kelsey Umthun for clarinet; Ian Abbot for alto sax; Besy Solon, Luke Zahari and Ryan Giarusso for trumpet; Jason Geisler for Horn in F; Caleb Vander Wiel and Roy Ju for trombone; Chris Kempf for bass trombone; Jesse Streicher for tuba and Catherine Isley for percussion.

All-Stater Julia Liu, violin said that “Honestly, I feel that I did much better preparation-wise this year than I did last year. When I went in my audition room, I was surprised that I didn’t feel nervous at all. That has never happened to me before.” Tickets are availible through www.ticketmaster.com. Iowa Public Television will air the concert on Thursday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m.