by Dakota Antelman
Two juniors and one senior were accepted into the Central Massachusetts Music Festival this week, a prestigious honor that only came after an intense audition process. Each of these artists has graced the stage at districts before, and yet this year, they all find new meaning in the honor.
Eleven Hudson students made the trip to auditions earlier this month. Three of those eleven were selected for the District Festival, with one of them, junior Thaya Zalewski, being invited to the All-State Music Festival next year. Zalewski, fellow junior Jack Snow, and senior Buren Andrews will attend two six-hour rehearsals during the first week of January. They will perform before a crowd at Mechanics Hall in Worcester on Saturday, January 16, during the district festival.
“It means a lot,” Snow says. “Especially looking at this year, it was a really tough year. I know a lot of kids from other towns who didn’t make it. They were really selective this year. It shows how they appreciate what we do and the hard work we do.”
This is the second consecutive year that Snow has been accepted into the program. Zalewski is making her third appearance at Districts while Andrews rounds out his high school music career with his fourth appearance.
The students performing at Districts have done it all before with regards to the program. Still, they find use in auditioning and performing this year.
“I think it gives you a whole new perspective on music and what it means to be in a group,” Snow says. There are so many technical parts of the group. There are things so narrow that they point out to you that you wouldn’t have otherwise thought about.”
Zalewski remembers her previous two performances at Districts with fondness and wonder.
“There were 120 kids in band one of the years I did it, and that’s just epic,” she says. “You sit down and everyone’s warming up, and you can barely hear the person next to you. Then when you all start playing in sync, it’s mind blowing how awesome it sounds. It’s a really awesome experience that not a lot of people get in Hudson.”
Hudson’s music program, despite devotion from the student body, has struggled to fill out its ranks in recent years. Band director Jason Caron says he still does not have an experienced tuba player. The district festival, however, has five tubas, as well as substantially larger horn and percussion sections. This also extends to the vocal programs. While Camerata, the acapella chorus that Snow and Andrews sing in only includes two tenor voices, the District festival has more than 10.
“It is fully instrumented,” Caron says. “We don’t have a tuba here; there’s gonna be five or six tubas in that band. It is designed to be a large ensemble experience where you get a chance to hear everything played really well by advanced students.”
The District Music Festival holds a special place in each of these students’ calendars. Auditions have and will always be a process. But they all agree that as they have gained experience working with judges and directors at Districts, their preparation and rehearsal ethic has changed.
“The past couple of years I would get the music in June and practice from then on, but then I would end up burning out by November. This year, I just decided to be more chill about it and practice when I could get to it. Then, of course, I practiced every day once I got closer to the audition. That worked pretty well,” Zalweski said.
She added that she also auditioned for a saxophone position in the band this year, something she credits with “helping get the nerves out before the clarinet audition.”
In contrast, Snow got his assigned rehearsal song in July and worked on learning it with his private voice teacher from then until auditions on November 14. He adds that he plans to continue this style of long-term preparation throughout the rehearsal process.
“I want to be more prepared this year when I get there on the first day,” he says. “They give you the music ahead of time. Last year I didn’t take the time to learn it and had to pick it up as I went. I definitely want to take that into consideration this year.”
The three students, as well as the eight others who auditioned, value music as an integral part of their lives. In turn, the intensity and selective nature of the District and All-State festivals are something they welcome.
Zalewski, the only Hudson musician invited to audition for the All-State Festival, says, “I was a little naive freshman going into this thinking I could get All-States then. No, it takes time. You have to work at it for a while, getting experience. I guess I’m there now, and I’m really happy.”
She, Caron, Snow, and Andrews all agree that leadership and commitment are qualities demanded of District and All-State performers. Zalewski says that having a goal like Districts or All-States helps keep those qualities alive.
“It’s given me the motivation, that concrete goal to work towards. It gives me that thinking that ‘Oh I have to practice this.’ Not like ‘I should practice this.’ I am [now] actually making it a priority [to practice],” she says.
