Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Saratoga High School all-star band members include (from left), Paul Sprague, trombone; Han Choi, bass clarinet; Jennifer Chu, clarinet; Tiffany Yao, clarinet; and Daniel Yaho, flute.
High School band program has had a remarkable year
By Rebecca Ray
The music building at Saratoga High School is often overcrowded with students practicing their instruments.
The practice has apparently paid off.
Fifteen SHS students qualified for the Santa Clara County Honor Band--more than have qualified in previous years. Also, for the first time, five students made the California Band Directors Association all-state band, the maximum number of students allowed from each school, said SHS musical director Michael Boitz.
This year has been, by far, the most successful year the SHS bands have ever had, said Boitz.
The students who made the all-state band are: senior clarinet player Jennifer Chu; juniors Daniel Yao and Tiffany Yao, who play flute and clarinet, respectively, and who are not related; sophomore baritone player Paul Sprague and freshman bass clarinet player Han Choi.
The all-staters will attend a conference at the Radisson Hotel and Fresno Convention Center in Fresno, where they will audition for placement in either symphonic band or concert band--the symphonic band being more advanced. After placement, students will participate in workshops and rehearsals and then play in a concert at the Saroyan Theatre.
The CBDA will also award them certificates and invite them to attend a California Music Educators Association conference Six members of the SHS orchestra will also attend, from March 8-10, at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, Calif.
Out of the honor band groups in the state, the CBDA all-state group is the elite group, Boitz said. Although hundreds of students sent in audition tapes, only about 200 students made it, Chu said. Thirty schools that didn't have students audition last year had at least one student audition this year, and most of the high schools in California sent in at least one tape, Boitz said. He added that 100 of the schools had no students selected.
On Jan. 19, Choi, Chu, Sprague and Daniel Yao also auditioned for the county honor band at San Jose State University along with hundreds of other students and qualified. Although Sprague will play baritone at the all-state conference, he auditioned for the county honor band on the trombone, which he plays in the school wind ensemble.
Yao, who also plays in the California Youth Symphony Senior Orchestra, performed as principal flutist at the county honor band concert, which took place Jan. 28 at Gunn High School in Palo Alto.
Last year, only Chu and senior clarinet player Joanna Sprague, Paul Sprague's sister, made the all-state band, and only junior clarinet player Megan Belomy, Chu, Joanna and Paul Sprague, Daniel Yao and Tiffany Yao made the county honor band, Boitz said.
Although Boitz knew that a high-quality group of students sent in tapes this year to audition for the all-state group, he said he was surprised when all of them made it.
"I think [the SHS band is] a very good group of leaders," Boitz said. "They have a lot of enthusiasm, and it propels them through their academic endeavors. It's a very high-spirited group."
This year, when the marching band, which consists of both school concert bands, competed in marching sweepstakes in Napa, it placed first over-all in its division, which consisted of about five bands, and had the best marching technique out of the 20 or so bands that competed in all the divisions.
Boitz, who has been band director at the school for three years, received kudos of his own when Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District faculty and staff named him the 2000-2001 District Teacher of the Year.
The 11 other students who made the county honor band this year are: Sue-Ting Chene, Megumi Nomura, Nancy Ho and Ada Yee, Catherine Gold and Maya Tuttle, Adam Judelson, John Jow, Jessica DeLeon, Steven Hwang and Wendy Hsieh.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
