Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Saratoga High School violinist Jeffrey Shiozaki is one of the six students who will be performing with the California Music Educators Association all-state orchestra.
Record number of SHS students chosen for the all-state orchestra
By Rebecca Ray
It wouldn't be surprising if Jeffrey Shiozaki never wanted to hear Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Suite 2 ,or Aaron Copeland's Billy the Kid Ballet Suite again. Shiozaki has been practicing both pieces on his violin almost every spare moment, in preparation for the California Music Educators Association all-state orchestra performance.
Shiozaki, 17, a junior at Saratoga High School, isn't the only student from the school who made the orchestra this year. Jennifer Lee, another junior who plays violin; cellists Emily Chang and Olivia Sattayipat who are juniors; sophomore Hanna Park who plays cello; sophomore Matt Allen who plays bass; and freshman Jessica Chang, on viola, will also perform in the orchestra on March 10, at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, Calif.
In fact, never have as many as seven students from the school qualified for the all-state orchestra. The most who have qualified from the school has been five students, in 1979, and last year.
Jessica Chang is also the first freshman from the school to qualify, and her sister, Emily Chang, Park and Shiozaki have qualified for the past two years in a row. Shiozaki is concertmaster of the school orchestra.
"The orchestra is a remarkable group of students," said school music director Michael Boitz. "They are high-energy, high-spirit, and they're just a dedicated, fun group of kids." Boitz was named District Teacher of the Year last year.
The orchestra typically earns superior ratings at the annual California Music Educators Association contest, and earned a unanimous superior rating, the highest possible rating, last year. Boitz said that the orchestra is, by far, the strongest group of musicians on campus.
The students arrive in Ontario on March 8, and rehearse with about 100 students from other schools until the performance.
"It's a lot of fun," Shiozaki said. "That's more why I do it, to get to know people. Saratoga High is great, but there are only so many students who play the same instrument I do and who play music, and when you go to all-state, everybody there plays music."
Shiozaki added that although the level of music played by his school orchestra and the all-state orchestra is pretty much the same, he has the most fun playing with the all-state orchestra, because musicians have only three days to rehearse together and put more focus into learning the pieces. "The feeling of knowing that we put this together and that we can perform it, it's just great," he said.
Shiozaki said that he hoped to earn a better seat in the all-state orchestra than he did last year. Once students arrive in Ontario, they audition for seats. Students who do better in the audition get to sit closer to the audience during the concert. Last year, Shiozaki earned the fifth seat for first violin. "I figure I'll give it my best shot," he said. "I have next year, too, if I [don't] make it. I think moving up one seat or two seats would be awesome for me."
But at least the painstaking part is over. "I think the worst part is waiting to find out whether you made it or not," he said, referring to the audition tape he made in November, and wait until January to find out if he qualified.
Students from SHS generally earn top honors as string players at the California Music Educators Association solo ensemble contest every year. Shiozaki, who has received the highest rating, "commended performance," in these competitions, is no exception.
If it had been up to Shiozaki, he probably would have played the drums. That's what he wanted to play when he was three. But his mom made him play the violin.
He didn't like to practice the violin until he joined his high school orchestra and the California Youth Symphony as a freshman. "It's more fun playing in an ensemble with other kids," he said.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
