Without the possibility of having in-person auditions, orchestra students prepared and recorded their excerpts for the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) All-Region Orchestra from Saturday, Oct. 3 through Wednesday, Oct 7. Students recorded their pieces through the software application MusicFirst. Out of the 89 students that auditioned, 70 got in, with 43 students making the Symphony Orchestra and 27 students making the String Orchestra. Unlike previous years, where getting in meant participating in a clinic and performing, this year, students will just receive recognition for their accomplishment. 

“I feel happy that I made Region, and I feel motivated to practice and improve for next year’s audition,” Amy Yamamoto ‘22 said. “I felt satisfied with this year’s audition process. Although it was a little intimidating to use new software to submit our auditions, I prefer this year’s audition process because it is a little less stressful to record by yourself with multiple tries. You are not affected by how others in the room play, and you do not have the pressures of playing for an audience. I feel a little sad about not having a clinic or concert this year, but I also feel glad because I do not want to infect others with COVID-19. It may also be a plus for high schoolers who are busy or have other things going on at the moment.”

Although the TMEA attempted to make the auditions as fair as possible, students voiced their concerns over issues such as everyone having different microphone qualities and different familial settings that would have affected their recordings. Additionally some students thought that the virtual process wasn’t the most accurate way of determining a student’s capabilities. 

“I personally wasn’t a fan of the online audition because of all [of] the factors that can’t be controlled virtually, but it was something inevitable given the state of everything right now,” Chelsea Zhang ‘22 said. “I definitely do prefer the traditional audition process over this year’s virtual process. I’m pretty disappointed about not having a clinic and concert this year because that’s such an important part of Region. Not only is getting to work with different conductors a great learning experience, but I always get to meet lots of amazing musicians during the clinic. It’s unfortunate that it won’t be happening this year. I do feel it is a responsible decision though, so I’m glad they made it.”

Listed below are those who made this year’s All-Region Orchestra.

Violin

Symphony Orchestra

Victoria Zhao ‘22*

Peter Kim ‘24

Sophia Louie ‘23

Brian Nam ‘23

Jeewon Pahng ‘23

Yanjun Yang ‘23

Anna Chiu ‘21

Joanna Oh ‘21

Rowechen Zhong ‘22

Ethan Yang ‘24

Minshin Kim ‘21

Hannah Lee ‘24

Gloria Wu ‘24

Aimee Wang ‘24

Hannah Liu ‘21

Anant Malpani ‘21

Brooke Xu ‘24

Seokhyun Kim ‘23

Darren Liu ‘24

Chelsea Zhang ‘22

Riya Patil ‘24

Phillip Wong ‘22

Rishi Ganesh ‘22

String Orchestra

Samuel Ngai ‘22

Nirupam Kushalnagar ‘22

Amy Yamamoto ‘22

Nashitha Azeez ‘22

Rohini Sreenivasan ‘23

Kevin Han ‘23

Prayag Sreenivasan ‘23

Rahul Muthuswamy ‘22

Emma Dong ‘24

Jessamine Qu ‘23

Hannah Ngai ‘21

Viola

Symphony Orchestra

Alice Guo ‘23*

Sarah Zeng ‘22

Soohyun Ahn ‘24

Isaac Jones ‘22

Amber Xiao ‘23 

Michelle Xiang ‘22 

Saanjali Majumundar ‘21

Venthan Dinesh ‘23

Sophia Zhong ‘23

String Orchestra

Armaan Srireddy ‘23

Ishan Dasgupta ‘23

Nayan Bhirud ‘24

Eric Yang ‘23

Shohom Mukherjee ‘22

Vineet Burugu ‘24

Kirtheev Senthilkumar ‘24

Cello

Symphony Orchestra

Eric Xu ‘22*

Yochen Zhong ‘24 

Noah Kim ‘23

Chris Huh ‘22

Akhil Gharpurey ‘23

Elliot Lee ‘22

Logan Hartmann ‘23

Jeeho Pahng ‘21

Evan Lai ‘23

String Orchestra

Shoumik Roychowdhury ‘22

Erin Zhang ‘21

Eric Lin ‘22

Jacob Erattuparambil ‘23

Andrew Yao ‘21

John Okamura ‘22

Gabriel Yee ‘24

Bass

Symphony Orchestra

Noah Greep ‘24

String Orchestra

Nathaniel Lawrence ‘21

Serena Manwani ‘22

Harp

Symphony Orchestra

Phyllis Stockton ‘22*

* denotes first chair