Found out on Friday night that Kevin made the High School All-State Orchestra. They took 16 violas; he’s 14th and he’s one of 6(!) violas from the high school to make it.
The Good: It is impressive that he made the orchestra as a freshman. I did tape him performing his etude….I know it sounds weird at times but that’s exactly how it’s supposed to sound. You can see and hear Kevin here. He’s happy about it, and this is the third year in a row he’s made it into the All-State orchestras.
The Not-so-Good: Mom and Dad are both left with this nagging feeling that he could have done better…..never really thought that he practiced enough and especially with the sight reading story relayed here (the other boy wasn’t penalized for it so maybe that means they did have different pieces on different days…if so, Kevin really got the short end of that stick because playing in the more difficult clef had to be an issue) it makes us go hmmmmm.
Hard to be say more on this, since, well, he did make it. He is the lowest chair’d of the 6 from is high school though….three freshman, and he’s the lowest of them. Wouldn’t have thought that they were ‘better’ than him. Kevin is right when he says the difference between 10 and 16 is tiny tiny tiny and, I guess it’s all how you sound on a certain day. In the last two years Kevin has had as a ‘stand partner’ another boy, Chris (that means they sit right next to each other in chairs…Kevin has been ahead of him by one each year). This year, Chris was 3rd chair…..you’d have a hard time convincing me that that placement relative to Kevin is correct.
In the end, he *did* make it, and that’s a big deal, and I’m looking forward to hearing him perform with the orchestra in January (and it’s a full symphonic orchestra too..winds, brass, etc.).
