Two Samohigh Students Join National Symphony Orchestra

From a press release:

Celia Daggy and Christopher Pak from Santa Monica High School have been named to the 2014 National Association for Music Education All-National Honor Symphony Orchestra.

Daggy and Pak will join 150 of the most musically talented and skilled high school orchestral students in the United States for a once-in-a-lifetime experience: performing on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Oct. 29.

These exceptional students, named the “best of the best” out of approximately 2.5 million students nationwide from local, district and state music festivals, will rehearse a repertoire of remarkably challenging music. They will perform under the baton of one of the most prominent conductors in the United States, Gerard Schwarz, music director of Eastern Music Festival and Conductor Laureate of Seattle Symphony.

Daggy and Pak, both seniors at Santa Monica High School, play the principal viola and the principal trumpet, respectively, in the high school’s Symphony Orchestra. The orchestral program at the school, directed by Joni Swenson and Jason Aiello, consists of seven ensembles, of which the Symphony Orchestra is the top-level full orchestra.

The NAfME All-National Honor Ensembles, consisting of a concert band, symphony orchestra, mixed chorus, and jazz ensemble, are organized by members of the National Association for Music Education.

The concert band and symphony orchestra will each have approximately 150 instrumentalists, the jazz ensemble will have 20 instrumentalists, and the mixed chorus will have approximately 350 vocalists.

For program and ticket information, please visit http://www.nafme.org/programs/all-national-honor-ensembles/. Tickets are $25.

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