Harmonizing Success: An Inside Look at Orchestras CMEA Results and The Behind the Scenes

Every year each of Redwood’s music classes perform in CMEA concerts. CMEA or Califronia Music Educators Association is a concert related circuit that gives different groups opportunities to be judged and scored by real professionals in the field.

By: Cecilia Rodriguez

Redwood’s very own 11th year orchestra teacher, Rodney Yokota, and some of his students had some insight on the highly awaited CMEA results, as well as some behind the scene information.

Yokota says, “All the groups got great results. The Chamber orchestra got unanimous superior. They scored really well. We actually scored two perfect 100’s.”

He talks about his class’s strengths, saying, “They learn music really quickly, and we’re able to play really challenging music. All of our groups are probably playing more challenging music than some of the other groups at other schools.”

When talking about his classes’ areas for improvement, he says, “Probably sitereading. Chamber did really good at sitereading, and advanced did okay. It’s always hit or miss because you always just get one shot at it.”

Yokota says, “…last year’s performance was good. I think it’s my 11th year here, and they have gotten superiors every year. They are just continuing the pattern of excellence that we have.”

Yokota thinks ahead for the next year, saying, “After we finish festival, it’s always just thinking about what you’re going to program for next year, what music we’re going to program. It’s just thinking about the strengths of our orchestra, what we’re going to have next year, what kind of music we can do.”

“Those are the only things that I think about for next year, just trying to find something more challenging, finding new music for them to play. It’s just getting something interesting that not everyone else is doing.”

Jelina Saephan, ‘24, says, “It wasn’t our best this year, but it was definitely good. It’s a good score but we could do better. Overall, we still did well.”

Saephan says, “We definitely changed as a whole group. Our dynamics were definitely a big problem last year, and we one hundred percent improved that.”

Students play instruments during Advanced Orchestra

She says, “…we definitely need to improve as a group of listening to one another still. Again, our dynamic was still something that improved that I noticed.”

She adds, “[I really enjoy] the people there and the community. I like how everyone is so close, and how we’re like one big, giant family. We can mess with each other and be serious at the same time and create this great piece of music together.”

Adriana La , says, “I think that we really showed up. We put a lot of hard work into the pieces that we were doing. We took on a journey and did a lot of harder pieces than we did in the last three years that I’ve been in orchestra. They were really impressive. I’m really satisfied with how we played.”

La says, “One aspect of our performance was that we didn’t play with our conductor, Yokota, for the first piece. It was more about trying to collaborate with all the other orchestras silently and working together as a team. I think it really brought us to winning those two superiors.”

She says, “There’s a lot of new freshmen that came in. I know that when I leave the orchestra, it’s going to be in good hands because there’s so many great players now. Because of that, we were able to excel within our class.”

“I think it’s all about teamwork, and I think that there’s this preconceived idea that orchestra is a competition between chairs, but now we’re more of a family, especially after the trip we did together. That competition is kind of diffused now and now we’re all friends with each other.”

She adds, “I love the banter that all of us have with our teacher, Mr. Yokota. It’s so fun and when it comes to the end of the year, we’re playing so much music. That adrenaline of piecing everything together at the same time is stressful but it’s really rewarding at the end.”