By Daily Press staff
Members of the Santa Monica High School orchestras have taken top state and national honors.
This past weekend, 45 members of the Samohi orchestras participated in the California Orchestra Directors Association Honor String Orchestra and Honor Symphony in Visalia.
The students, led by Joni Swenson, director of the Samohi orchestra program, were among hundreds of California high school students who auditioned for seats in the honor orchestras.
Samohi students chosen for the CODA Honor String Orchestra are Patrick Deasy, David Farzam, Jennifer Farzam, Jarrett Furst, Lizzy Glennon, Mayura Jain, David Jang, Anthony Lai, Vincent Lai, Jonathan Lee, Michelle Matsunaga, Alan Miller, Jesse Nabel, Nicole Negrete, Skylar O’Connor, Marika Page, Giancarlo Ranaudo, Amaro Taylor-Weiner, Wyles Vance, Adrian Weishofer, Ellery Weiss and Pegah Yazdy.
Samohi students named to the CODA Honor Symphony are Ben Bartelt, Rebecca Bartelt, Sarah Boyle, Julianne Bruce, Joey Corral, Calvin Dacosta, Sarah Elbaum, Kerri Epps, Lauren Foust, Joanna Kaplan, Gloria Lim, Ryan Lin, Nicole Liner- Jigamian, David Litwak, Anna Nabel, April Paik, Mai Anh Perches, Andres Pichardo-Rosenthal, Kevin Poindexter, Devon Pratt, Henry Samuels, Carl Schoellhammer, Jules Sulpico, Ilana Summers, Zach Van Pelt and Matt Vincent.
Special congratulations are due to the following students who after a live audition were placed as section leaders in the CODA Symphony: April Paik, concertmaster; Lauren Foust, principal violin II and Henry Samuels, principal bass. Ryan Lin, CODA Symphony Violin I, as well as the section leaders were awarded $200 scholarships to various summer music camps.
Samohi Orchestra students also have been recognized at the national level. Joey Corral and Devon Pratt were selected for the National Honor Orchestra and will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York City next month. Joey Corral, David Litwak, Peony Pak, Henry Samuels and Zach Van Pelt were chosen to be members of the National High School Honor Orchestra which is scheduled to perform in Reno, Nev. in February.
On Tuesday, Dec.14, at 7 p.m. the Samohi string, concert, symphony and chamber orchestras will perform for their winter concert at Barnum Hall on the high school campus. The program will feature Brahms’s Symphony No.1, in addition to holiday music. A percussion ensemble will provide entertainment during the intermission. General admission is $7. Elementary and secondary students, as well as senior citizens 65 and over, will be admitted for $3.
The Samohi orchestras are in the process of forming an organization for alumni. Members of the community who are Samohi graduates and who played in the orchestra are requested to contact Jack Epps at (310) 458-6430. All orchestra alumni will be given free admission to the winter concert. Are you a poet and know it?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 9, 2004. Read the original PDF.