Colorado’s All-State Orchestra selected eleven students from Fossil Ridge High School for their 2018 ensemble. Six orchestra students and five band students got into the orchestra; the students from the orchestra program who were accepted were the same students who were selected for the Western States Honor Orchestra earlier this year. They included Sasha Chappell and Josh Lee on cello, Esther Jeong, Jeannie Zhang, and Amy Koo on violin, Hannah Mullins on viola, Arnold Pfahnl and Gracie Finnegan on French horn, Hayden Simms and Aaron Lucas on trumpet, and Emma Shelby on flute.

Chappell, Simms, and Mullins got into the Symphony Orchestra, which is the top group, and Lee, Jeong, Zhang, Koo, Pfahnl, Finnegan, Lucas, and Shelby will participate in the lower ensemble, the Philharmonic Orchestra. Chappell, who has prior experience participating in All-State Orchestra, stated, “I’m pretty excited this year because it’ll be the last year I’m doing it. I really have a chance this year to try to do very well and get to see all my all-state friends for the last time. I’m really excited for our repertoire and it’ll be lots of fun.”

The All-State Orchestra weekend will be February 8-10 at Colorado State University. The entire event includes sectional and full ensemble rehearsals, and will feature a concert for the public on February 10. Conducting the Philharmonic Orchestra will be Gail Barnes, a professor of Music Education at the University of Southern Carolina. Included in the Philharmonic Orchestra’s repertoire for the concert is Franz Schubert’s Symphony #3, Movement 2, Jean Sibelus’s Karelia Overture, Alexandre Luigini’s Ballet Egyptien – allegro non troppo, Gian Carlo Menotti’s Barcarolle from Sebastian Suite, and Benjamin Britten’s Courtly Dances from Gloriana. Sey Ahn, an accomplished pianist and orchestra conductor, will lead the Symphony Orchestra in Pytor Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slav, Op. 31, Hector Berlioz’s Rakoczy March, and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, IV. Stürmisch bewegt.