By Cameron Piland, Staff Writer
Senior Mary Kathryn Stroud is used to making beautiful music as first violin of the FFHS string orchestra. What she heard from the stage of the all-region symphony performance was a whole other level.
“The concert was fabulous. There were so many people on each part. The sound was so big and full, it was the most people I’ve ever played with,” Stroud said. “Cellos, violas, violin 1s and 2s, basses, horns, woodwinds. It was really fun to hear all the instruments playing together. I’ve never done anything like that before.”
Stroud and fellow seniors Ellis Turnage and Delaney Hanf, along with junior Heath Miller, each enjoyed a prestigious honor this winter, getting picked for all-region concerts to play with other talented youths after auditioning. Each FFHS musician beat out students from schools in the east region.
“We first began with playing the music we had practiced, then we sight-read a solo and (played) scales,” Stroud explained. “I was very nervous and it felt like it was 300 degrees in the high school. It was so hot.”
The strings auditioned in Fayetteville, which was a minor problem for Miller. He started his Saturday in Greenville for the all-region band audition, where he was playing his French horn.
“I didn’t actually ride on the bus like Delaney and Ellis, because I had another audition that day for the strings. I instead rode with my mom,” Miller explained. “We were there for a few hours, and so I was just sitting there waiting. They called around four or five people at a time for each instrument.”
Miller made it into the North Carolina Music Educators Association All-Region Orchestra on violin, the NC Bandmasters Association All-District Band on French horn, and – after submitting a video audition earlier in the winter – the NC Bandmasters’ East Region Jazz Clinic on trombone.
The band and orchestra concerts were at ECU, while the jazz clinic took place at UNC Wilmington. The concerts came after long days of practice together as well as sectionals, with lots of time to get to meet new people from schools all over the state. College-level professors led the groups.
“There were two-hour rehearsals with 15-minute breaks in between,” Stroud said. “We did have a two-hour lunch break, but that’s probably because the lines for lunch were so long. After lunch, we got back to rehearsal and sectionals. I ended up going to bed around 8 – it was a very long day!”
Turnage earned a spot in the all-region concert band on trumpet. Hanf was the only upright bass in the concert band, learning that new instrument earlier this year after playing bass guitar in band and violin in orchestra during the rest of her high school career.
“I’ve only played the upright bass for around three months, so I wasn’t thinking I was going to get in, but there were only two people auditioning, so I had a fair chance,” Hanf said. “It was a little intimidating at first, but it was a lot of fun.”
Sophomore Cameron Piland can be reached at 25pilandca25@daretolearn.org.
