Accelerated Achievement Academy’s Desaray Azevedo achieved a major honor for regional music students and she did it for the second time in three years.
Azevedo was named to the Central Coast Honor Band and participated in the annual concert at Washington Middle School in Salinas on Jan. 24. To go along with the achievement, Azevedo also was among five of 52 students to receive a $1,000 scholarship for a 12-day summer band camp in Cazadero, Calif.
Azevedo plays the flute and piccolo, and recently started on the saxophone after getting one for Christmas. She also plays in the local Portuguese marching band every weekend and in parades, she noted.
The seventh-grade student said this year’s Honor Band concert was a fun experience. She learned some new keys and made friends along the way. Azevedo said the experiences in the Honor Band—she made it in fifth grade as well—have helped her to improve quite a bit over recent years.
“I was really happy that I got it because the tryout for the Chromatic Scale was hard,” she said.
The selection and concert are overseen by the California Music Educators Central Coast Section, which includes San Benito, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Luis Obispo Counties.
For the Central Coast Honor Band auditions, students receive an audition page with three different scales and two songs. They turn in digital recordings that are then uploaded to a website.
Middle school teachers judge high school students, and high school teachers judge the middle school students, said Susan Silveira, Public School Teacher at seven sites in the Hollister School District.
Of course, the work wasn’t done with the audition. For the actual concert weekend, band members rehearsed together that Thursday night for three hours, that Friday from 9am-3pm and then Saturday from 9am-12pm before the concert at 2pm.
Azevedo also had the chance to announce the song (“West Highlands Sojourn”) at the start of the concert upon a request from the conductor.
“It was a fun experience,” she said. “I’m happy I got in. I had fun there.”
Silveira said she was very proud of Azevedo for her achievement.
“It’s a real thrill for us because they work really hard for it,” Silveira said.
