Whiz Kid of the Week: Huntington Middle School Musicians

Each week San Marino Patch names a Whiz Kid of the Week. This can be a kid, teen, sports team, Girl Scout troop, etc. from San Marino who is amazing in some way.

We are asking for your nominations for Whiz Kid of the Week, so suggest a special San Marino kid, teen or youth group in the comment box below! Read more about nominations .

This week’s Whiz Kids are the Musicians led by the Huntington Middle School Music Department Chair, Dr. Bill McDaniel, along with Jim Flosom and Derek Jimieson.  

Music is many things to different people. As an art form, it’s a means of relaxation, a place where the tight hum of the string chords, the gentle anthems of the brass, and the mellow coo of the woodwinds lifts us up and beyond our lives of work and school into a world where listener and musician alike can come together in mutual understanding and appreciation. 

Accomplishment:
Recently, part of the Huntington Middle School music program, comprised of the Concert Choir, the Wind Ensemble, and the Advanced Orchestra, exemplifies this ideal in the way it takes young musicians from their early to mid adolescence and provides a nurturing environment in which they can ply their craft. Proof of this mentality is in the numerous awards that the 175 students of the Huntington Middle School’s Music Program earned when they participated at Heritage Festival in San Diego in March 2011. Some of their awards include:

1. Invites for the Advanced Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Concert Choir to perform at the National Level in the “Festival of Gold” next year.

2. The Advanced Orchestra has been honored with the Adjudicator’s Award for earning a score above 92 in a competition.

3. For the second consecutive year, the HMS Music Program has won the Sweepstakes Award for having the highest combined scores from all its participating performance groups.

4. On an individual ensemble the Concert Choir, Wind Ensemble and Advance Orchestra won first place and the Jazz Band took home second place.

Awesomeness:
But what makes the Huntington Middle School’s Music Program amazing is that it is not just an environment that promotes the musical arts but a place that encourages leadership skills in our youth while igniting their passion to pursue music into the future. Each musician, from the woodwinds to the violas, the trumpets to the bassoons, even the piccolo, cannot perform independently. An orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, or band, is as much as a center for team building and leadership skill development as any sport or extracurricular activity. An example of this quality can be seen in Stephanie Cho, the concert mistress and a young and passionate girl who has been studying violin since Kindergarten, and Eva Prappas. Both have been awarded the Maestro Award for their exceptional musical ability, sensitivity, and performance as parts of their respective performance group’s leadership.

Visit www.huntingtonband.org to lern more about of the amazing music programs at Huntington Middle School.