Four Redhawks have distinguished themselves as a part of the top 1% of musicians across Texas, joining the All-State Orchestra that will perform at the TMEA Convention in San Antonio, in February. 

“Each string student must learn two incredibly difficult etudes in their entirety and five additional professional-level excerpts—ones that musicians auditioning for professional symphonies would learn,” orchestra director Julie Blackstock said. “This is done on their own merit, no teamwork or teammates to rely on—simply their own discipline, attention to detail, and talent. Mr. Lucio and I have no involvement except to give them feedback in the last two weeks before their recorded audition.”

With 13 students having recorded for All-State this year, a new trend has also emerged. 

“We had three bassists record for All-State Orchestra this year,” Blackstock said. “There has never been a bassist from Liberty High School to record for this prestigious honor before—and this year three did, including two freshmen!”

Students learned the All-State excerpts and etudes concurrently with the music for All-Region auditions, almost completely independently and with a private instructor. 

“Even though I’ve been playing the cello for 7 years now, I think the All-State audition process is quite rigorous,” senior Jayden Song said. “Even though I was able to play through the music quite early on, I was experimenting with different practice techniques in order to ensure that I’d be really solid on my music. I had to audition with Popper 15, Piatti 2, and excerpts from Shostakovich, Dukas, and Hovhaness.”

Despite being a three-time All-State musician, this year’s All-State placement is a special one for junior Rishab Srivatsan. This year will be the first time Srivatsan is a part of the Symphony Orchestra: the top ensemble of the three All-State orchestras. 

“My group, the Symphony Orchestra, will be playing Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony,” Srivatsan said. “I have been playing the viola since 6th grade and have put in lots of effort to get better since I am passionate about playing. Through the past 3 years I have been trying to make the symphony orchestra. I was one off last year and I was finally able to make it this time.”

In the process of preparing for All-Region and All-State, junior Vir Gandhi was able to overcome a long-term challenge and improve his music. 

“It[‘s] also an opportunity to improve on my mistakes during the Region audition for the harp solos and to show that I was much better than how I performed at Region,” Gandhi said. “For me, I’ve had a problem with my finger closing and angle of placing my thumb for years. This summer we worked really hard to fix it because it reverted back to my old placing last year, thus it helped during the audition because it strengthened my tone.”

For sophomore Kevin Xu, a second-year All-State musician, being in All-State Orchestra once again is a culmination of students’ hard work and an opportunity to represent the school.

“All-State Orchestra is seen as one of the highest honors a Texas high school string player can achieve, as it’s probably the competition that reaches the most people and is promoted the most,” Xu said. “I’m really happy to have made it and to be representing our school this year for the second time, and to me it means my hard work has paid off and I can finally get to go back and perform in one of the All-State ensembles.”

The four students who made All-State Orchestra are: 

• Kevin Xu – Sinfonietta Orchestra, 2nd year All-State musician
• Rishab Srivatsan – Symphony Orchestra, 3rd year All-State musician
• Jayden Song – Philharmonic Orchestra
• Vir Gandhi – Philharmonic Orchestra