The high school chamber group and soloists competed in the Golden Empire Solo/Ensemble Music Festival on Feb. 29 at California State University, Sacramento.
They won four gold ratings and one silver rating (out of gold/superior, silver and bronze).
The chamber group — seniors Emma Boersma (violin) and Shimin Zhang (piano) along with juniors Sarina Rye (violin) and Elise Sommerhaug (viola) — earned a gold rating with its performance of “Quartet I” by Jean-Frederic Edelman.
In addition, violin soloists Boersma, Rye and Ryan Xu, a seventh grader, won gold ratings.
Senior Shimin Zhang won a silver rating for her Chopin piano solo.
Xu played “Scene de Ballet” by Charles de Beriot; Rye performed “Meditation from Thais” by Jules Massenet; Boersma played “Aria” by Franz Ries.
Rye and Boersma soloed for the first time.
“Following my performance, I felt that I might get a superior based on the reaction of the judge,” Boersma said. “She didn’t have a lot of comments and seemed overall impressed.
“Although, I don’t think I played my best. I missed a couple of notes towards the beginning, which made me nervous.”
In addition, this was music teacher Maria Hoyos’ first festival at SCDS.
“I was feeling very confident because we worked hard, and I was very positive,” Hoyos said. “When we got four gold ratings, I was very happy for the group because they played beautifully.”
The gold medalist group and soloists advance to the Northern California State Solo/Ensemble Music Competition, May 1-2 at Sacramento State.
—Arikta Trivedi
