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The following announcement is from Arto Asadoorian, director of Visual & Performing Arts for the Belmont Public Schools.
This past Saturday, Nov. 18, 132 students from Belmont High School traveled to North Andover High School to audition for the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) Northeastern Senior District Festival. These students spent weeks and months preparing an audition that required them to perform a piece of solo repertoire and demonstrate high levels of proficiency playing selected scales and sight reading. Auditions are judged by professional musicians, and the highest performing students are selected to perform in the MMEA-NED Band, Chorus, Orchestra, and Jazz Ensemble.
This year we are very proud to announce that 76 students from Belmont High School were accepted in the Senior District Festival. The question I will be asked by many in the community is, “Is this the most students that have ever been accepted?” The answer to that question is, “I really have no idea!”, since we don’t keep statistics like this on hand. What I can say is that I have been writing these e-mails every year for quite a while, and I don’t ever remember typing a number higher than 77.
Along with the students who were accepted, we must also congratulate those who auditioned and were not accepted – some by only the narrowest of margins. There are dozens of students who were one or two points shy of being accepted, which of course tells us that they are well-deserving of a place in the District ensembles.
The fact that so many of our students perform so well at these auditions each year is a direct result of their hard work, the support they receive from their parents, the excellence of the teaching faculty who work with them, and to the high value, our community places on music education in our schools.
Below is the list of students who were accepted to perform at the 2018 MMEA-NED Senior District Festival. Congratulations to these students and their families on this impressive achievement!
| Idris Abercrombie | Trombone |
| Rebecca Anderson | Tuba |
| Eli Barnes | Chorus |
| Merrill Barnes | Chorus |
| Sam Bastille | Chorus |
| James Boyle | Chorus |
| Stephen Carvalho | Chorus |
| Alyssa Chen | Violin |
| Jason Chen | Clarinet |
| Jessica Chen | Viola |
| Katarina Chen | Viola |
| Grace Christensen | Chorus |
| Miriam Cubstead | Chorus |
| Eleanor Dash | Trumpet |
| Sylvian Davidson | Tenor Saxophone |
| Tori Dignan | Chorus |
| Emily Duffy | Chorus |
| Garrett Eagar | Trombone |
| Joia Findeis | Viola |
| Mariko Findell | Euphonium |
| Elizabeth Galli | Chorus |
| Mary Galstian | Chorus |
| Christopher Giron | Bassoon |
| Alicia Grassia | French Horn |
| Catherine Graves | Chorus |
| Cameron Gurwell | Euphonium |
| Sammy Haines | Chorus |
| Honor Hickman | Jazz Tenor Saxophone |
| Eva Hill | Chorus |
| Allen Jang | Chorus |
| Seiyoung Jang | Trumpet |
| Wonyoung Jang | Euphonium |
| Ethan Jin | Jazz Trumpet |
| Nate Jones | Jazz Trombone |
| Daniel Joh Kang | Violin |
| Emily Kim | Violin |
| Isabelle Kim | Violin |
| Edward Lee | Chorus |
| Miro Leeb | Viola |
| David Leigh | Flute |
| Meri Lochhead | Chorus |
| Chris Lynch | Trumpet |
| Philip Lynch | Trumpet |
| Raffi Majikian | Chorus |
| Jackson Mann | Chorus |
| Natalie Marcus-Bauer | Chorus |
| Clare Martin | Alto Saxophone |
| Noah Merfeld | Chorus |
| Matthew Miller | Clarinet |
| Sebastian Newell | Chorus |
| Charlotte Nilsen | String Bass |
| Christina Noonan | Chorus |
| Alex Park | Jazz Trumpet |
| Chloe Park | Trombone |
| Jessica Peng | Flute |
| Calvin Perkins | Trumpet |
| Olivia Pierce | Chorus |
| Elisabeth Pitts | Chorus |
| Audrey Quinn | Violin |
| Connor Quinn | Chorus |
| Valentine Reynolds | Chorus |
| Annalise Schlaug | Cello |
| Becca Schwartz | Chorus |
| Lila Searls | Alto Saxophone |
| Walter Shen | Chorus |
| Ian Svetkey | Chorus |
| Jason Tang | Clarinet |
| Will Thomas | Chorus |
| Shankar Veludandi | Chorus |
| Allan Wang | Clarinet |
| Alex Wilk | Viola |
| Amy Wu | Oboe |
| Andrew Xu | Bass Clarinet |
| Alex Yang | Cello |
| Clark Zhang | Oboe |
| Henry Zuccarello | Trombone |