(Chelsea Update would like to apologize to Sophie Sjogren for misspelling her first name. )
By Lisa Carolin
The new year will offer an exciting opportunity for some talented Chelsea orchestra and band students. They’ve been selected to perform at the All-State program on Jan. 24, 2015 at the Michigan Music Conference in Grand Rapids.
The All-State program is offered through the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association for all high school students and middle school students grades 7-8.
“The process is students must learn a required orchestral excerpt for strings and an etude for band students plus a set of scales,” says Jed Fritzemeier, orchestra director for the Chelsea School District. “Students then go to an audition site, in Chelsea students’ case, Saline High School, and record the audition.”
A set of judges listens to the recordings for each instrument and chooses All-State participants and alternates. Five ensembles are selected: a Middle School String Orchestra, a Middle School Band, a High School Full Orchestra, a High School Band and a High School Jazz Ensemble.
This year, the Chelsea High School Orchestra had three students recognized:
Zach Johnson, double bass, as a participant, and Lee Argir and Lydia Peters as alternates.
Beach Middle School had four students chosen for orchestra:
Katie Rae Hayduk, violin, Jacob Smedshammer, viola and Sophie Sjogren, cello, all as participants, and Rheana Grudzinski, viola, as an alternate.
One Chelsea High School student, Kelli Bertoni, a junior clarinetist, was selected for the All-State Band this year. Beach Middle School eighth-grader Parker Stahl, a trombonist, was also chosen.
“Nearly 2,500 band and orchestra students from around the state of Michigan were considered for All-State honors,” said Rick Catherman, CHS director of bands, who added that the school’s music department has a student enrollment of more than 300 students, or nearly 40 percent of the high school student body.
