all-state 2026: my first (and last) year

2026 marked my first and last year at All-State. It turned out to be one of the most profound and joyful experiences of my life so far.

Being surrounded by people who all play at such a high level, and who truly wanted to be there, is something that has been missing from my life. We assembled the program incredibly quickly, and after a 3 hour rehearsal, we sounded as good as – if not better than – my youth orchestra. We got the pieces to a high level so early on that we could spend a lot of time on the small details.

The conductor, Dr. Hoi Yin Kwok of Ithaca College, knew exactly what to ask for and how to explain what he wanted, and he almost never had to repeat himself. Everyone wanted to improve, wanted to sound the best we could, and did not want to be the person that fell behind. And the low brass, man they were incredible! I have never heard such a deep, rich, majestic sound from a low brass section.

Let’s go through the events of this weekend.

day 1

When I first arrived, I took a walk with my parents around the area, and I got some of my favorite photos ever on my Ricoh GR IV. Once I entered the convention center and checked in, I met up with my friends from my school. My seating audition was only half an hour away, so I got to practicing the difficult parts.

My audition felt awful in the moment, and I did not feel like I played my best: I had to restart one of the excerpts (at least I didn’t leave my music at the airport like one of my friends!). The practice I had put in beforehand did pay off though, and I sounded pretty good in retrospect. Keep this in mind for later.

I visited the exhibition hall with my friends, which had a ton of booths for all sorts of music related companies, from Yamaha to the Sacramento Mandarins, natural trumpets to plastic instruments, and even a booth selling conducting batons. I spotted a few trumpets I wanted to try, so I went back to my luggage to grab my mouthpieces. When I tried to go back, though, one of the chaperones did not let me go back! Since I was checked into the main hall, I couldn’t go anywhere else. Unfortunately for him, my friends and I found a backdoor that led straight into the exhibition hall, and we were off! I found a few trumpets that played really nicely, including the Wayne Bergeron and Bobby Shew Yamaha’s.

Prior to our first rehearsal, we had to form our chaperone groups, which were predetermined by last name. Our group was called Heliodor, which as one of my new friends said, “oh so we’re a rock.” This chaperone group was extremely funny. The chaperone assigned us all numbers, and her way of taking attendance was to have all of us say our numbers in order. Whenever someone wasn’t there (it was always “number 5? ANDREWWW!”) we restarted the count, as if that would somehow summon the missing person. Because of this, and our chaperone’s general disorganization, we were consistently the last group in our ensemble to arrive anywhere, from meals to the hotel.

At our first rehearsal, there were name plates on the music stands so we knew where to sit. I started looking for my name at the back, as I thought my audition went poorly, but I couldn’t find my name. I kept going up a stand, up another stand, until finally, I found my name tag: I was the concertmaster!!! I was shocked, but also thrilled, because I have a lot of experience being concertmaster and, well, it meant I was the best in the state! My ensemble was the Symphony Orchestra, the highest level orchestra in the conference.

We started with Barber’s Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, a piece I had wanted to play for the last few years! I first heard it in Star of Indiana’s 1993 show, titled “The Music of Barber and Bartok”.

Since the pianist would only be at morning rehearsal of day 2, we had to get the piece to a point where it was easy to add the piano. And that’s exactly what we did.

The word of the rehearsal was: supple.

After dinner, we collected our room keys (which took another hour and a half) and lined up at the door with our roommates. There were 2 lines, and the chaperones decided to merge them. For absolutely no reason, my room got moved. To the very back. Another hour, gone.

We only got to our room at around 11pm, and still had to shower, unpack, and get ready for bed. We watched some sheet music on the TV while we did that, and finally got some sleep.

day 2

When I say I got some sleep, I mean about 2 hours because one of my roommates snored louder than a chainsaw. One of my roommates pulled up with the exact same fit that I had set aside the night before: white t-shirt, blue jeans, and chain.

At breakfast, someone knocked my orange juice out of my hands with their case (on accident) and it spilled all over my shoes! They helped clean it up, so it was all good.

At the morning rehearsal, we finally got to play the Barber with the pianist. Towards the end of the piece, my e-string snapped! The conductor announced “first casualty of all state!” as I furiously replaced my string with the only spare I had (keep this in mind for later).

One section of the Barber was in 7/4 time signature, and the conductor counted us off with “6, 7…”, leading to a subsequent laughing fit among the entire orchestra. He said “it’s not my fault Barber wrote in 7/4!”

The word of the rehearsal was: superfluous.

During lunch, one of my roommate’s friends commented that my posture was really good, whether I was sitting or standing, which was pretty funny.

After lunch, we got to visit the exhibition hall. I tried out every trumpet I could (again!), playing a lot of high notes and turning a lot of heads. Notably, I heard some people say “wait, he plays trumpet too?”

I bought a tri-tone samba whistle, which I had been hearing throughout my listening of latin jazz, and I was super excited to see one there for sale.

At the evening rehearsal, we finally got to work on Ethel Smyth’s “On the Cliffs of Cornwall: Prelude to Act II of The Wreckers and Arturo Marquez’s “Conga del Fuego Nuevo”. We got both pieces up to a really solid level in only one rehearsal, which I was super impressed by. It’s a testament to how good everyone there was, and how good the conductor was at getting exactly what he wanted out of us.

The word of the rehearsal was: ineffable.

That evening, we got to watch the first concert at All-State, which was comprised of vocal jazz, middle school jazz, and high school jazz. Vocal jazz was an extreme vibe, and I loved the scatting solos they did. Middle school jazz was super impressive, because those kids could really play! I think a lot of them were better than the musicians at my school’s jazz band, and they brought the crowd to their feet (albeit with some rushing).

High school jazz, though, was something else. They were incredible. They played a lot of familiar pieces, including one called Palmas by Eddie Palmieri, which I had played in the jazz ensemble I am in. In fact, one of the trombonists who soloed on that tune is in the same ensemble, so it was great hearing a familiar tune played so well.

The students watching the concert were all in the upper seats, and once the concert was over, we attempted doing a wave that spanned the entire student section. We were successful for the most part, except for one group at the end who never joined in!

We arrived at our hotels extremely late once again, due to the chaperones, but we got an extra hour before breakfast the next morning.

day 3

Since we had a concert that evening, the conductor did not want us to overplay, so at the morning rehearsal we recorded run-throughs and listened back to make note of what could be improved.

Somehow, my E string snapped again, in the exact same spot of the Barber as the previous day! Luckily, my standpartner had an extra string that she lent me, as I had used up my only spare the day before. Her bow had broken, so I lent her my extra bow, and I’d say we were even.

At the break during the morning rehearsal, I got jump-scared by my school’s band director, who showed up to watch a portion of our rehearsal.

In the Marquez, there was a measure where the conductor had asked for a glissando, and in the recording we took you could clearly hear that I did the glissando very exaggeratedly. He started jumping around a bit and looked really happy with how the glissando sounded, and told everyone to do it that way!

We practiced our entrance, standing/sitting, and bows for the concert. Dr. Kwok asked me to do my walk on, and I did a very exaggerated one just to be funny (it was quite the success).

After the rehearsal, we had a mini Q&A with Dr. Kwok. Here are some notable things I remember from it:

• He chose the antiphonal layout (with first violins on one side, second violins on the other side, and cellos next to the 1sts and violas) because it forces the orchestra to listen more closely, and can lead to greater perfection than the normal layout. Since similar voices are further apart, there is much less margin for error, so while it is more difficult, a higher level of togetherness can be attained.
• His favorite key is when enharmonic modulation (like from F# to Gb) happens, especially in Schubert, because the entire harmony pivots on a single note, but becomes a completely new emotion.
• His favorite composers are the Three B’s (no, not Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms): Britten, Barber, and Bartok. He said that Bach didn’t feel very personal to him, but Britten did.
• Dr. Kwok plays violin too, and often applies to be a sub in professional orchestras. He is going to play Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Mahler’s 6th Symphony this year.

The conductor was given a gift on behalf of the orchestra: pens, a notebook, and a 365 Words a Year calendar! We also gave him folders signed by everyone in the orchestra.

Prior to dinner and the concert, we had 45 minutes to pack, change into our concert attire, and meet down in the lobby. However, due to Heliodor’s chaperone group and attendance, we only had 15 minutes. I repeat, it took 30 minutes to take attendance. Some of us (myself included) wanted to take a nap before heading down, but instead we were forced to scramble around to cram pack as quickly as possible. It was quite the stressful time, and we weren’t even allowed to use the stairs!

After dinner, we had a 30 minute soundcheck on stage. We started each piece, touched on a few trickier spots, and during those sections the conductor went out into the audience to listen to the balance, which meant I was the conductor for a few minutes!

Next, we had some time to relax on stage, but I mostly stayed backstage and talked to the conductor. I also got a few photos on stage with my friends (which had horrible backlighting but a great background).

Walking on stage at the concert after being announced as the concertmaster, I could not keep the smile off my face. Hearing the audience cheer, the rumbling of the orchestra’s stomping, and being proud of representing my school, I felt true joy. When I turned around to tune the orchestra, I was still smiling, and I saw many people in the orchestra smiling too.

We were all brought together through music, a bond so strong I cannot describe in words. It is something that only happens when playing music together. We connect so strongly, playing perfectly with each other, phrasing together, even moving together!

Throughout the entire concert, it felt like no one was worried about the notes or their entrances. Everyone was just having fun, pouring the music out for the audience. I have never felt as happy performing as I did then, at that concert.

When we finished the final piece, I couldn’t help but cry as the audience rose to their feet, the conductor shook my hand, and I felt the culmination of all the emotions of the weekend.

It was amazing. The concert was really, really good, and performed with such amazing people.

Afterwards, we went backstage to the room where all our equipment was. My standpartner gave me back my binder and said “don’t look at the last page”, so naturally I did. She had drawn a few really impressive pictures of me and my instruments, and that made me feel really good inside.

I got photos with a bunch of people, including a selfie with all of the first violins and Dr. Kwok, and a photo with a group of 8 girls (which people were laughing at when they saw me get the photo like “he got game!”).

And at last, we got to experience one final wave of chaperone disorganization. We were told to head back to the convention center, instead of watching the Wind Symphony perform. Once we took attendance outside and were about to walk to the convention center, we were told that those instructions were a mistake, and we were supposed to drop our stuff off backstage (where our stuff had already been) and to go watch the concert. Once we finally did that, we were told again to head to the convention center. So we never got to watch the Wind Symphony, unfortunately.

Despite the endless chaperone adventures (or maybe because of them), the weekend felt perfect in its imperfection.

Walking out of that final concert, still buzzing from the standing ovation and Dr. Kwok’s handshake, I realized something: one of the best parts of All-State was seeing the people we became while playing such excellent repertoire at such a high level. For three intense days, I wasn’t just a high school violinist; I was part of something bigger, something grander. Being concertmaster meant I got to lead that energy, but every single person in that orchestra, from the unstoppable low brass to my 1st violin section, made the weekend unforgettable.

This was my first All-State, and my last. But the friendships, the laughs, the moment my E-string snapped (twice!) and we just kept going, the way the entire group moved and breathed as one during the concert, those will stay with me forever.

If you’re ever lucky enough to get that acceptance email, say yes without hesitation. The exhaustion, the late nights, the spilled orange juice, the messy chaperone groups: it’s all worth it for those few hours when music turns a room full of strangers into a family.

Thank you, All-State 2026. Thank you, Dr. Kwok. Thank you to every musician who showed up ready to give everything.

I’ll be carrying that sound for a long time.