Choral and Instrumental Students Take Center Stage and Advance to Regionals

The Upper School Music Department has been recognized for its continued excellence as a combined 28 choral and instrumental students have advanced to compete in the Southern Region High School Music Festival sponsored by the Connecticut Music Educators’ Association.

The choral student representatives include seniors Casey Armstrong, Annabel Beatty, Leonard Mao, and Monte Meng; juniors Rick Huang, Daniella Li, and Jacob Schonberger; sophomores Ilke Altindas, Flynn Carney, Alma Goren-Eisenberg, Leon Jiang, Evelyn Liu, Tobias Liu, Mae McDonnell, Alex Pu, Paula Wang, Jason Xie, and Jiali Yang; and freshmen Yiwei Zhang and Jack Zheng.

“I am incredibly proud of the outstanding work and dedication of our students as they represented Hamden Hall so well at the regional auditions,” said Upper School Music Director Matt Harrison. 

According to Mr. Harrison, Hamden Hall posted six perfect sight reading scores and nine perfect scale scores. Monte posted a perfect score of 198, the only perfect score in any voice part in the southern region; and Annabel, Daniella, Jacob, and Mae posted a perfect literacy score with Mae also posting the top soprano score in the region with 197.

The instrumental student representatives include senior Levi Johnson on tenor saxophone for Jazz Ensemble, junior Sissi Zhang on violin for Orchestra; sophomore Victor Ma on percussion for Concert Band; sophomore Andrew Yang on violin for Orchestra; sophomore Grace Yang on clarinet for Concert Band; freshman Sun Woo Kim on timpani for Orchestra; freshman Felyx Wang on percussion for Orchestra; and freshman Allison Yang on violin for Orchestra.

“I'm happy for my students who were accepted into the Southern Region Orchestra, Band, and Jazz Ensemble this year,” said Instrumental Music Director Melissa Hudson. “Participating in the Regional Festival is a wonderful opportunity for our students to enjoy meeting and performing in these outstanding ensembles with other talented students from Southern Connecticut.”

The Southern Region High School Music Festival will take place on January 19 and 20 at Francis Maloney High School in Meriden. With their acceptance to the regional competition, all students are eligible to audition for the Connecticut All-State Festival, which will be held in the spring.