By: Madison Navarrette
Redwood high school went to El Diamante to participate in the orchestra CMEA’s on March 20th. From rehearsal time to performance time, students and orchestra teacher, Rodney Yokota, were focused on doing their best to get a good score and make a good impression on the judges. Throughout the audience there were 3 judges that would score every orchestra out of 100, and give them a rank. Dawn Harrison, Cottin-rack, and Grizzell were in charge of judging the event. High schools from all around the valley participate in this event, each doing their best to put on a good show for the other schools watching.
Redwoods intermediate, advanced, and chamber orchestra took the stage and dominated the competition under the direction of Mr. Yokota. Intermediate received the ranking of superior and the scores of 91, 89 and 92. Advanced received the ranking of unanimous superior and the scores of 97, 98 and 96. Chamber also received the ranking of unanimous superior and the scores of 99, 99, 99.
Dante Gomez, ’22 and a violinist in intermediate orchestra, says that “My first high school CMEA was pretty fun because the other CMEA’s we never went to the mall afterwards. I think we probably could have played a tiny bit better because we were only one point away from getting a unanimous superior.”
Whitney Mitchell, ’21 and a violist in chamber orchestra, says that “This is my first CMEA where i played with chamber orchestra. The experience is much different than any of the other orchestras because we played much more challenging and technical songs. I think we did our absolute best since we got 99 all around the judging panel.”
The scores the orchestras received reflect on how hard they work in class, on the daily. Redwood rangers never fail to represent and they give our school something to be proud of. Looking back at the judges comments, every students who played should feel proud, as each commented that the playing was beautiful.
Tags: advanced, bass, beating the competition, cello, Judges, music, orchestra, orchestra concert, organization, Redwood, redwood fine arts, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, redwood music, redwood rangers, redwoodorchestra, rhs orchestra, viola, violin, winning