Fremont's Hopkins Junior High Home to Nation's Top Music Program

Each year several students from William Hopkins Junior High School (better known as Hopkins) audition for acceptance into regional and statewide honor ensembles. These are groups made up of the best instrumental musicians from the region or the state. Successful students spend a weekend on intense rehearsals under the direction of a seasoned music educator to prepare for a concert. Participation in these groups is a tremendous honor and demands a great deal of consistent hard work just to audition!

In 2020, Hopkins will have 50 students attend the NCBA (Northern California Band Association) All-Northern Junior High Honor Band, to be held on January 17-19 in Stockton, CA. They account for almost 50% of the total number of students accepted in all of Northern California! This is by far the largest number of students from ANY school accepted for the event!

At the state level this year, Hopkins will have 23 students in the CBDA (California Band Directors Association) All-State Junior High Honor Band—the highest number of any Northern California school, and 18 students in the CODA (California Orchestra Directors Association) All-State Junior High Honor Orchestra—the highest number of ANY school in California! The total of 41 students represents the greatest number that Hopkins has ever had. They will be participating in the California All-State Music Education Conference in Fresno, CA, on February 20-23. This is also the largest total number of instrumental participants of ANY middle school or high school at the statewide event!

Apart from accomplishments of individual musicians, Hopkins’ instrumental groups continue to pursue excellence, even beyond the borders of California. In 2019, for example, Hopkins' Advanced Orchestra finished Second Place at the National Orchestra Festival held in Albuquerque, NM. The ensemble was the only group representing California there, and one of only six middle school orchestras nationwide that have earned the privilege to participate.

To honor the success of the Hopkins Music Program and to benefit its future music students, the community had donated a gift to commission music for the program. The first, titled Miraj (by Richard Meyer) was a momentous experience for our city when it was premiered in Ohlone College in 2015; this was the first time in recent history that an original piece of music had been written by a guest composer for a school ensemble in Fremont, CA! Ancient Runes (by Dr. Andrew Boysen, Jr.) premiered in 2016, and ...in the silence of the canyon (by Dr. Jack Stamp) made its debut in 2019. Anytime anywhere in the world when any of these pieces of music are introduced during performances, the audience would hear "Hopkins Junior High School" as well as "City of Fremont" mentioned on stage!

To allow a wider community to share in the remarkable musical training, the Hopkins Music Program offers summer instrumental classes free of charge to all eligible junior high and high school students of the Fremont Unified School District. In 2019, about 400 students took advantage of this three-week program to maintain their skill, to keep playing in a group when school was out, and to experience firsthand the top-notch music program that exists in our own backyard.