Drawing his bow across the strings and moving through fast violin music compositions, sophomore Jonathan Huang recorded an audition that earned him a spot in the All Southern Symphony Orchestra, an honor ensemble of top high school musicians across Southern California.
In this two-day event hosted by the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1, students prepared to perform a concert at the Riverside Convention
Center. All Southern Symphony Orchestra selects students through an online audition process in which musicians submit recordings of scales and excerpts from different classical music pieces, such as “Symphony No.4” by Felix Mendelssohn and “Symphony No. 39” by Wolfgang Mozart. Huang, a violinist, prepared his recording extensively, reviewing his tapes before submitting a final video of a portion of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor.
“I was a little nervous, but I think I remember doing it in middle school, so I kind of know how it goes,” Huang said. “I did the scales first. Those were supposed to be the easier ones, so I just knocked that out first. Then I recorded some of the excerpts and I rewatched the recording, made some adjustments and about a week later, I did my second recording and finished.”
The program itself takes place over a two-day period, but brings students from across the Southern California region to rehearse and perform as a single orchestra. Musicians spend the first day in extended rehearsals before presenting a concert the following day. During the performance, the orchestra played three works—”Gift” by Zhou Tian, “Romeo & Juliet Suite 1 Opus 64A” by Sergei Prokofiev and “Danzon No.7” by Arturo Marquez. Despite the limited rehearsal time, Huang said the experience helped him improve technically while learning to perform with different musicians.
“I think the conductor was pretty helpful,” Huang said. “He was teaching me how to have better posture and how to express myself more while playing. “Learning the pieces was difficult because of the short period of time given and the tempo at which they were played. Romeo & Juliet, for example, was very fast, so it was difficult for me to get it up to tempo.”
For Orchestra Director Katie Takahashi, programs like All Southern State Orchestra are valuable opportunities for students. Because the orchestra is audition-based and draws musicians from across Southern California, students are placed in a highly competitive environment where they must quickly adapt to new music and work with advanced-level musicians.
“It’s an extra opportunity for them to participate in something that’s more difficult and at a higher level,” Takahashi said. “They’re performing with students from all across Southern California who are in the top percentile of their orchestra programs.”
After attending the concert, Takashi said she was proud of Huang for committing to the audition process and representing the school in the ensemble.
“I’m really proud of him for making it and for putting in the extra work to audition,” Takahashi said. “He put on a great concert.”
Looking back on the experience, Huang said performing with the orchestra also helped him recognize the areas he wants to continue improving as a violinist.
“I’m really happy about getting this [opportunity] because I didn’t do All-Southern last year,” Huang said. “[I learned to work on] my articulation, like the staccato, and my bow hand movement. I like that the violin has a bright sound and can project melodies beautifully. I may still play the violin when I go to college, and I plan on improving by working on time management so that I have more practice time.”
