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Our Southern Californian students had a wet, blustery visit to Seattle this past weekend as organizers of the Heritage Festival said it was the wettest, rainiest festival they have ever had. Jazz trumpet player Jonathan Oyaga was none too pleased with the weather because he likes the sun but remained positive saying, “the trip was forever shining!” A reference to the name of one of their ballads they performed. Shining indeed.
The Tigers came home with huge honors. The Heritage Festival gives gold awards to those scoring between 90-100, silver is a score between 80-90 and bronze is a score between 70-80. Within that, bands receive first, second, and third place therefore a 1st place gold is the highest achievement.
The Tigers Jazz Band, Symphonic Band AND Orchestra all took 1st Place Gold, the highest possible for all three ensembles!
Of the Jazz Band win Oyaga said, “we were all extremely happy because all our hard work and waking up early to make the zero period finally paid off. Now we’re extremely excited for the jazz competition coming up on May 5 and for jazz night on May 11.”
In addition to those prestigious awards the Tigers also received the Adjudicator Trophy for Orchestra and Symphonic Band. The Adjudicator award is given for having a score above 95. It is nominated by the adjudicators and South Pasadena High School was the only school at the competition to receive this award.
Tigers also received the Instrumental Sweepstakes Trophy for the highest average score of two instrumental groups from one school, Outstanding Band Trophy for highest scoring band group and Outstanding Orchestra Trophy for highest scoring orchestra group.
There were 1000 individual musicians participating in the Seattle Heritage Festival and five were given the Ovation Award for solos. Three of those five were from South Pasadena High School.
Congratulations!
Kelsey Lih – Orchestra
Euan Zhang – Jazz Band
Niko Tripodis – Jazz Band
Music Booster chaperones tell us they noticed that with most of the high schools there was a teacher for each ensemble plus hired assistants. Music boosters and the community are indeed grateful for all the work that Mr. Crawford does heading up the entire music department. Bravo and congratulations to all of you.
