Cellists Anastasia Wilson and Trevor Petersen were both selected to participate in elite honors ensembles this past month. This is a career-first for music educator Brad Rauch. “I’ve never had a student make it into one of these orchestras in my 17 years as a strings teacher. We have many talented musicians in grades 9-11 so hopefully this is the beginning of a trend of excellence,” Rauch said. The two musicians were selected through an extensive audition process and were accepted into their individual programs earlier this year. Wilson was accepted into the Honor’s Performance Series which takes place at Carnegie Hall in New York. According to the website, “The High School Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall challenges elite students to perform at their very best. Students rehearse and perform under master conductors
and have the opportunity to perform before invited representatives from collegiate and professional music programs.” This is an international program, drawing people from all over the world into the program. Wilson found out about the opportunity from another musician who had participated the year prior. She looked it up online and applied during the summer. After sending in videos, audio recordings and letters of recommendation, Wilson was selected for the Honor’s Performance Series and asked to fly out to New York next February. Between rehearsals, the musicians will be able to sightsee and tour around New York City. There is an organized outing to attend a Broadway show as well as other activities. Regarding her recent accomplishments, Wilson said “I think it’s every serious musician’s dream to play at Carnegie Hall, so this is a life-changing event for me.” Petersen was accepted into the National Association for Music Educators’ All-National Orchestra in Grapevine, Texas.
He performed November 10-13 among some of the most talented student musicians from around the country. For his audition, Petersen had to send in an unedited and unaccompanied video of him playing a required music piece selected by the NAfME. He heard about his acceptance about 2 months after he applied. Petersen described the audition process as pretty simple. Similar to Wilson, Petersen heard about this opportunity through other students and teachers at Central. He explained that he sought out the program and applied because “It’s always good to play in various ensembles, because each orchestra or chamber group is going to be a little bit different.” Petersen’s advice to all musicians is to “work hard, practice a lot, and never give up.” “I think this is a perfect example of our talented and ambitious students representing the community of the performing arts and Central High School on a national level,” Rauch said, “and we are all extremely proud of Trevor and Asia.”