With the help of Music Director Kate Burns and Orchestra Director Susan Smith, Archer honors musicians participated in the 2016 CAIS Honors Music Festival on Feb. 20-21, 2016. They performed with students from schools from across Southern California.

A number of Archer students from orchestra and choir attended the conference, as well as one student who performed in the band category of the festival.

Audrey Koh ’17, Sammy Raucher ’19, Jayla Brown ’18, Isabella Moncada ’16 and Hannah Kim ’20 performed in the orchestra.

Aviva Intveld ’19 played the flute in the band category. Stella Gage ’17, Meg Smith ’17, Gwen Strasberg ’19, Kristen Mundy ’17, Haley Jamieson ’16 and April Tate ’17 performed in the choir.

On the first day, the students auditioned in hopes of being the first chair, or leader, of their section.

Over the course of two days, all of the students practiced their pieces in their instrumental sections for their performance on the last day of the festival.

Brown, a violinist, emphasized her appreciation for the support that her Archer peers have shown her throughout the process leading up to and during the conference.

“I think doing something with friends was really helpful especially because I didn’t feel alone during the whole process of it,” Brown said. “I’m really proud of my friends who got really high in the orchestra and I looked up to all of them.

“It was really cool to hear the full thing with a full orchestra and it was definitely really challenging because the hard pieces go really fast and they’re so much fun,” Moncada said.

Brown suggests that students who consider trying out for CAIS to practice as much as they can.

“Don’t be afraid to do it, I was very hesitant towards doing this,” Brown said, “but overall, the feeling after of working hard for two days straight was a great feeling and I would recommend this to anyone who wants to try.”