Music is in the air this season as the results for All-State Guitar came out. This year, 40 students from high schools around the state were accepted into the program, including six of Heritage’s. The program, sponsored by the Florida Music Education Association, is just one of the many All-State divisions. The guitar division invites accepted students to perform six pieces of music together at the All-State conference in January.
For junior Jacob Kasner, practicing for the audition started during the summer. “As soon as I had the music, I began practicing. I would set aside at least 45 minutes every day during the summer to practice,” Kasner said. The audition, which took place in early October and lasted a couple of days, was “definitely nerve racking,” according to Kasner, not because of the judge, but because of the amount of time he had spent practicing. “[The audition process] put a lot of pressure on me which resulted in not playing some parts as well, but it paid off,” he acknowledged.
This did pay off, as he and five other students received their acceptance from the program in late October. Once the convention begins, participants will take part in a two-hour practice session as well as an eight-hour practice session to make sure everything is pitch perfect.
