by Julianne Kelly

On Friday, January 26, the Jazz Ensemble and the choir group Room 107 traveled to Folsom to perform at a jazz festival.  Members of the Jazz Ensemble found themselves in the upper echelon of the competition when they placed first in their division.  This qualified them for finals in which the top four of the seventy groups performed.  At finals on Saturday night, the students were required to play a piece on the spot they had never seen before. Adding more pressure to the situation, they had to sight-read the piece in front of a thousand people. Seniors Maleesa Suksiri, Camille Ramirez, and The Yuma led the way in expert sight-reading. Mr. Dave Gregoric was proud of the way they sight-read but stated that they could have done better overall, as is always the case. Room 107 also did very well and received fourth place. The group had a blast at Folsom, and they loved cheering each other on during their solos.  They greatly improved over the course of the year, according to sophomore Katy Sullivan.  One exciting moment for the group was when the composer of one of their songs, "He Beeped When He Should Have Bopped," told them they had done a good job performing it. Additionally, Room 107 received straight "Superior" ratings at the CMEA jazz competition held in San Francisco a few weeks ago.

Many soloists were noted for the excellent performances.  These soloists include: Camille Ramirez on alto saxophone, Matt Carroll on tenor saxophone, Nick Sutton on bass, Yuma Sung on keyboard, Giancarlo Antonelli-Garret on alto saxophone, Gregory Chen on piano, Katie Hubbard on tenor saxophone, Ian Herbert on tenor saxophone, and Room 107 soloists: sophomores Grace Duncan and Lena Palmer, and junior David Chapin.

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