The Georgia Music Educators Association All-State Band is one of the highest honors for middle school and high school band students. Students get the opportunity to display their talents on their instruments as they audition by performing scales, lyrical and technical etudes, and sight-reading exercises. After the first round of auditions, some students are selected for the district honor band, and they move on to the second round, where the group is narrowed down to a final All-State band.
This year, auditions took on a different format to ensure the safety of students and judges. Students recorded their auditions at home and their band directors submitted them to GMEA to be scored. The digital auditions were a great way to make sure students still had a fair opportunity to showcase their talents from the safety of their own homes. Unfortunately, the All-State conference, which is typically held in Athens, will be replaced by an online awards ceremony and special digital conferences on April 16 and 17.
The Wolves really showed out for this year’s auditions, with 10 BMS Students making the Middle School All-State Band. Those students are Hannah Jung, Emma Walters, Peter Kwak, Adonis Diaz-Romero, Brandon Duracher, Quinton Hallen, Clay Mason, Gabriel Silva, Matthew Her and Jaden Vo. In addition to these 10, there were seven students who made the District Honor Band. They are Leo Choi, Anthone Hernandez Santana, Justice Booker, Elena Anderson, Ashly Delira, Harris Teague and Eliud Aguirre.
BHS saw seven students make the High School All-State Band. They are Ray Choi, Savannah Dinh, Joseph Her, Paul Kwak, Joshua Lee, Rowan Martin and Savanna Watcher. Those seven students join another five for the District Honor Band. Those five students are: David Lee, Luis Delira, Aria Mason, Reece Martin and Jamie Koch. Congratulations to all of our talented students for seeing their hard work pay off. Keep up the great work! Go Wolves!