The school’s band and orchestra traveled to Anaheim, California, for the Forum Musical Festival at Biola University March 8 and 9.
When the band arrived at Biola University on the morning of March 8, group warm-ups and performances began soon after, with the band performing first, followed by the orchestra. Once performances finished, the awards ceremony took place in the late morning. On March 9, they attended the Vienna Philharmonic concert at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts before heading back to TPHS.
“My favorite thing about traveling with the band is seeing new places and learning about their culture through the music from that area,” Arno Janoyan (10), one of the band’s pianists, said.
Mila Keres (11), a violinist for the orchestra who received an Outstanding Musicianship Award, shared her experience with the performance.
“I felt excited, we had a lot of opera music and it felt good to play in such a large ensemble with my schoolmates,” Keres said. “The performance went well, and it was our first time playing these pieces.”
After the ceremonies concluded on March 8, students spent the day at Disneyland Park, an annual event.
“It was exciting to go to Disneyland and bond with my fellow musicians,” Keres said.
Emmanuel Valdez, a parent of one of the orchestra students, accompanied them on the trip.
“The Forum Musical Festival was an opportunity for the band and orchestra to showcase their talents, perform and be judged by experts and build team relationships with their fellow performers,” Valdez said. “On Sunday, they attended a once in a lifetime concert of one of the world’s finest musicians, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In between, they were all able to bond and have some fun at Disneyland.”
As a first-time volunteer for the band and orchestra, Valdez shared how he enjoyed his first chaperone experience.
“It was a great honor and experience to travel with them this past weekend and I hope to participate in another in the future,” Valdez said. “My favorite part of the trip was seeing them perform in front of their peers, judges and a captive audience.”
Amy Gelb, the school’s Music Director and band, orchestra and jazz band teacher, shared how the trip enriches the experience of the music students.
“It helps with their team bonding,” Gelb said. “It gives them the chance to get essential feedback from the judges and from other musicians rather than just me saying the same thing. It means more when it’s coming from someone else — so what happens is they have written comments and then they also send us the audio of them talking so we get to listen to that feedback and hopefully improve for our next performance.”
For each of the band and orchestra concerts, a different student was chosen to perform a solo. For the Forum Musical Festival, Keres and Michael Zheng (9), a clarinetist for the band, were the chosen soloists.
“Solos are generally based on skill and need of the piece,” Keres said. “Personally, I got chosen to play a solo because the regular concertmaster was not able to go on the trip. I had about a week’s notice to prepare the solos.”
Looking towards the future, Janoyan commented on the band’s aspirations.
“Right now, the band’s goals for the future are to fundraise and get better equipment to make Torrey Pines music a better program,” Janoyan said. “We are also trying to raise more funds for our trip to New Orleans later this year.”
