Hersey students earn 28 spots in regional music festivals

Posted October 16, 2013 11:00 pm

Tina Kapinos

For the third consecutive year, Hersey High School of Arlington Heights placed more students than any other school in the Illinois Music Educators Association District 7 Band and Jazz Bands. Hersey placed 16 of the maximum 18 allowed to audition in the band and 12 of 12 in the jazz bands. This marks the second consecutive year that Hersey placed all 12 of its musicians auditioning in the jazz bands.

More than 60 high schools participated in the ILMEA District 7 band and jazz auditions. This year about 600 students auditioned for concert band and 250 for the jazz bands.

Selected for the concert band were: Sachina Hobo (freshman), Angela Kucharski (junior), Samantha Lapid (senior) and Lisa Norling (senior) on Bb clarinet; Jeremy Fuller (senior) and Paul Kim (junior) on bass clarinet; Adam Johnson (sophomore), Yuki Nojima (sophomore) and Josh Popivici (senior) on trumpet; Mary Casagrande (senior) on French horn; Brian Ellison (senior) and Kevin Kapinos (senior) on trombone; Max Ulbert (junior) on bass trombone; Serena Voltz (senior) on tuba; and Rino Nozawa (senior) and Andrew Jones (senior) on percussion.

Making the jazz bands were: Jeremy Fuller (senior) on baritone sax; Erick Berg (senior), Adam Johnson (sophomore), Yuki Nojima (sophomore) and Josh Popivici (senior) on trumpet; Max Ulbert (junior) and Serena Voltz (senior) on bass trombone; Brian Ellison (senior), Kevin Kapinos (senior) and Tom Powers (junior) on trombone; Jamie Popp (freshman) on drum set; and Karl Lingner (junior) on string/electric bass. Of these students, seven made one of the top two jazz bands. Fuller, Johnson, Nojima, Popovici and Ulbert all placed in Jazz 1. In addition, Kapinos and Linger earned the top scores on their instruments, landing the pair spots in the Honor Jazz Combo for the second consecutive year.

The band students will perform in a concert on November 9 at Crystal Lake Central High School. Jazz students will perform on November 16 at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa.

Article Comments

Article Comments

Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.