Known as one of the most highly anticipated moments in the orchestra program, All-State results finally came out yesterday, late during the evening. All-State, a competition involving all orchestra players within Texas, is a strenuous task in which players are given seven to eight excerpts to master and play for a recording that will determine their rank within the state.

The All-State auditions involve two rounds: Area and State. Area is the first factor that will either enable players to move onto the final round or not. Often, half of the excerpts in the first round are part of the etudes used in All-Region, another competition. The other portion of the excerpts, however, is snippets from orchestral pieces that will be played later in All-State clinic itself.

“I felt like the orchestral excerpts were easier than last year’s, but that also makes it harder too because that means everyone else will be better at it,” said Juliana Kim ‘16.

20 students from the Westwood Orchestra made State this year, beating last year’s record of 19 students. Four freshmen, five sophomores, four juniors, and seven seniors will be part of the State 2016 Orchestras, and those numbers are expected to rise in the future.

“I just felt really happy when I got the results back,” said Raymond Park ‘19, “Hopefully, I’ll be able to do even better in the years to come.”