Three talented students were honored with the opportunity to place into the All-State Band for this year. Junior flute player Leilani Foreman, senior flute player Summer Bruner, and junior percussionist Payton Icard all competed against a handful of students.

All three students are very passionate and driven in their musical senses and put blood, sweat, and tears into every single competition/audition that they’ve gone through.As they took their first steps into Dekaney High School, hundreds of other students just release all of their nerves and anxiety into the same three etudes that they’ve been preparing for months without end.

“It felt like they were taught to be very competitive” Bruner said, “In general, it was pretty much the same concept as 5A except there was just a more elevated sense of competitiveness.”

It would be the same experience that all three of them had experienced last year in area auditions, the only difference would be for Summer who took the 6A track.

As someone who has been passionate about music ever since the fifth grade, Summer’s hard work into practicing her instrument shines every single day when she rehearses in front of people.

Bruner is hoping to continue her passion of music past college and into professional symphonies. From starting a flute account on Instagram to force her to practice and pursue through the days where she doesn’t feel confident in her playing, her hard work has paid off by her second consecutive year of placing into the All-State band.

Icard and Foreman began learning their instruments in the sixth grade with no possible idea on how they would come.

Persistence and practicing almost every single day have benefitted to all three students’ talent and musical ability.

Icard has worked uber hard to grow in the past year and put all of her time and absolutely everything she had into her audition.

“Last year, I was not expecting to make second and this year I was like ‘I have to make it’” Icard said, “I knew
coming into this year like I had to do whatever I possibly could to make sure that I got first.”

Icard hopes to get accepted into the University of Michigan with a Bachelors in music education and a masters in music composition. She wishes to grow up and become a band director of a wind ensemble at a college.

Whether it be their pounding heartbeats or people around them playing as fast as they possibly can, all three were anxious about the competition but knew that stepping into the audition room, they needed to hold their heads up high and do what they had prepared for.

A positive mindset could easily be seen as one of the most imoprtant things to bring into this competition and Foreman did exactly that.

“Last year coming into area there was a lot of feeling like this is my first year, and I don’t know who’s going to be better than me or not,” Foreman said, “I felt a lot more prepared this year and put myself into the mindset that I was ready for area auditions because I put so much time into practicing region, especially over winter break.”

Foreman also wishes to pursue music in her future, mainly working with professional symphonies enlightening others.