Dozens of musicians will represent Albuquerque Academy at the 2023 New Mexico Music Educators Association All-State Festival. The festival showcases the top musical talent from across the state’s high school music programs through large ensembles that include band, orchestra, chorus, guitar, and jazz. Sophomore Quinn Ross was named concertmaster of All-State Guitar as the highest-ranking guitar player, and senior Matthew Stein earned the top jazz trumpet spot.
Students played prepared pieces and did sight-reading at their auditions held this fall. “They’ve been preparing this audition music outside of their curricular repertoire and working really hard for that one shot at each of the components of the audition,” says band teacher Hovey Corbin.
“The requirements are very demanding, and the process is highly competitive,” says guitar teacher Genevieve Leitner. “Students must learn a set of repertoire and technical exercises specific to their disciplines. The demands of this repertoire go above and beyond what is expected of the average student and requires students to spend many extra hours of practice to prepare themselves.”
With the exception of the youth choruses, the ensembles will have several intensive rehearsals in the days leading up to the festival on Saturday, January 7 at Popejoy Hall. (Ticketing information is not yet available.) The Youth All-State Festival, organized by the New Mexico American Choral Directors Association, is January 26-28 in Farmington.
“It takes so much dedication and preparation to be selected for these selective ensembles, which are truly made up of the best student musicians in the entire state, and we support them in preparing, but they are the ones doing an amazing amount of work on their own,” added Mr. Corbin. “I can’t express how proud I am of all of our students, including those who auditioned but weren’t selected this time.”
Congratulations to these Academy musicians!
Guitar
Josh Andrews ’23
Philippe Bakhirev ’23
Taytum Beal ’23
Marcus Brown ’24
Julio Chacon ’23
Caiden Fine ’23
Theo Gallant ’25
Isabelle Hammond ’23
Annie Hoang ’24
Julia Kelly ’24
Sydney Marks ’24
Carolina Martinez ’24
Vivian Mitchell ’23
Quinn Ross ’25 , Guitar 1 Section Leader – Concertmaster
Taryn Ortiz ’25, Guitar 2 Section Leader
Jazz Band I
Kieran McIndoo ’24, Alternate Drums
Matthew Stein ’23, Trumpet 1 – Top Jazz Trumpet in New Mexico
Symphonic Band
Jiniu Lee ’26, Trumpet 3
Tallulah Ortiz ’24, Percussion
Concert Band
Isabella Hays ’23, Clarinet 3
William Reese ’25, Trumpet 3
Ethan Xia ’26, Trumpet 2
Alternate – Levi Richard ’23, Baritone Saxophone
Orchestra
Jane Bielejec ’26
Luciano Brito ’23
Abigail Czuchlewski ’24
Ericka Defazio ’25
Joanne Li ’23
Sunaina McKee ’23
Gavin Mitchell ’26
Viveka Narayanan ’24
Anna-Alice Patelli ’26
Mikiko Suga ’23
Youth (Grades 4-9) Elementary ChoirÂ
Soprano
June Johannesen ’29
Alto
Sara Helvenston ’29
Laasya Tutiki ’29
Youth Treble Choir
Soprano
Edward Bielejec ’28
Chelsea Brodie ’26
Larissa Jubay ’28
Alto
Iphigenia Rogers ’27
Sowmya Sankaran ’27
Youth Mixed Choir
Soprano
Ty Andrews ’28
Kadiah Dragone Gutierrez ’26
Alto
Jane Bielejec ’26
Leah Lopez ’26
Alehi Musani ’27
Tenor
Zachary Brown ’26
Bass
William Landahl ’26
High School (Grades 9-12) Treble ChoirÂ
Soprano 2
Stella Hudson ’23
High School Mixed Choir
Soprano 1
Laurel Nash-Jarecki ’23
Alexandra Raskin ’25
Alto 2
Sophia Wrobel ’24
