STEVIE WONDER BAND WORKSHOP
As part of the Stevie Wonder Band’s concert in Charlottesville, their guest harmonicist Frederic Yonnet and members of the band conducted a workshop for band, choir, and orchestra students. Students were completely surprised to be invited onstage to join the Stevie Wonder Band on drums, sax, bass, keyboards, violin and more. The students may have been surprised, but as Fred Yonnet said, “They were definitely up for the challenge. Music is definitely in THIS school!”
REPRESENTING AT REGIONAL ORCHESTRA
The CHS Band and Orchestra are among the most decorated in the state. Along with the choir, the three performing groups have earned the school nine blue ribbons for excellence from the Virginia Music Educators Association. This fall, a fully 20instrumentalists earned places in the regional orchestra, meaning that CHS alone occupied more than 20 percent of the available chairs. Senior Mary Stelow earned the concertmaster chair for the second consecutive year. Other qualifiers are Campbell Brickhouse, Faith Brown, Cameron Ciambotti, Randall Crittenden, Carmen Day, Micah Hunter-Chang, Claire Jenkins, Rachel Jones, Victoria Kremer, David Kriete, Saoirse Lee, Charlie Manning, Leighton Read, Bethany Reitsma, Matthew Robinson, Noah Robinson, Caleb Rose, Parker Sullivan, and D Thomas. In addition, Saoirse Lee earned a coveted spot in the all-state choir.
STATE-WIDE RECOGNITION
The CHS choir and a string quartet were invited to perform at the annual meeting of the Virginia School Boards Association, the CHS string ensemble received a sixth invitation to perform for the Virginia Music Educators Association, and the CHS and Buford bands performed at ceremonies on Veterans Day for the City of Charlottesville and Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of James Monroe.
THEATRE PROPS
At the Virginia Theatre Association’s annual meeting, CHS students earned best-one act musical for their student-directed presentation of Children of Eden. They also earned special recognition for the three directors, Emma Kessler, Saoirse Lee, and Daniel Neale, as well as awards in the “technical theatre olympics,” the “improvathon,” scenic design, and new one-act play.
ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE
In addition, our visual artists swept 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the annual Rumi Forum’s Art of Peace and Dialogue art contest, earning a combined $225 in prizes. Sahara Clemons placed 1st, Gaia Sorensen, 2nd, and Jesus Gutierrez-Majia, 3rd. Finally, the Piedmont Council for the Arts recognized four CHS students in various fine and performing arts as Rising Stars: Micah Hunter-Chang, Emma Kane, Kate Kayton, and Saoirse Lee.
Congratulations to all of our fine and performing artists and their excellent teachers!
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