When freshman Natalia Jimenez’s parents found out she had earned the title of principal cellist, they were not only excited and teary-eyed for her but also confused.
“My dad was proud of me, but he followed his excitement with, ‘What’s that?’” Jimenez said. “But my mom had visible tears in her eyes. She was so happy.”
Twenty orchestra students participated in the Region 33 Orchestra auditions on Sept. 27. Jimenez was one of nine who advanced.
“Region is, essentially, all-stars for orchestra,” orchestra director Evan Farmer said.
The “principal” title means the student is the section leader and acts as the messenger between the conductor and the other players. They communicate with the other musicians by playing more demonstratively and with their bodies to signal when to begin playing.
Region, to a lot of players, is extremely stressful and takes up a lot of time. The stress lingers while they’re practicing because of the fear of messing up the actual audition.
“The most stressful part is wondering if you’ll mess up or not, because you only get one shot at it,” said Jimenez, a member of the school’s varsity chamber orchestra. “The best part is getting it over with and not having to practice the etudes anymore. Region is a lot of fun, and if you make it, you get to learn a lot of new things and meet new people.”
For the region competition, students were given two pieces of music to learn over the summer. On the day of the competition, the judges pick a small section for the musicians to demonstrate.
Junior violist Claire Slaydon was also named principal violist.
“It’s really hard to prepare the song that they’re only gonna pick a little bit of because you never know what part they’re going to pick,” Slaydon said. “They usually pick two songs, one really fast and one really slow. They usually pick half a page for violas.”
For the Region 33 auditions, Slaydon brought bananas for herself and other orchestra players to eat before playing in front of the judges. She did this because the potassium in bananas can help reduce stress, and she wanted to be of help.
The person who helped Slaydon the most was Farmer.
“Mr. Farmer has had the biggest impact on me,” Slaydon said. “I kept crying in a practice room because I was so nervous, and he told me to go play out in the room for everybody. Him forcing me to play with other people helped me gain more confidence.”
Orchestra director Evan Farmer was proud of his students who were able to do well enough to impress the judges, but there were fewer of them who did so than he had hoped for. His goal each year is for at least 10 to make region.
Some students in orchestra rely on private tutors to help them prepare for Region when they don’t feel that practicing by themselves is enough. However, not everybody can afford a private tutor, which makes it even harder for those playing the violin and bass, who seemingly had more challenging pieces to play.
“I think the etudes for the violins and basses were extremely difficult, and we were at a disadvantage because most of our students do not get private lessons,” Farmer said. “Private lessons are a huge aid in making Region, especially this year.”
