MVHS Senior Marya Romero was selected to play viola in the 2011 All State Orchestra which met March 31 - April 2 in Reno.

By Jessica Robison

Moapa Valley Progress

Moapa Valley High School senior, Marya Romero, travelled to Reno on March 31 to participate in the All-State Orchestra. Romero plays the viola in the MVHS Orchestra and also plays in the Las Vegas Youth Orchestra program.

The All-State program takes students one step higher than the Clark County School District Honors Orchestra. After auditioning for, and participating in, Honors Orchestra last fall, Romero went through an intense audition process to get into the All-State orchestra program. She was required to perform an excerpt of a required piece for judges before being accepted to the program.

Many young musicians in Nevada tried out for All-State orchestra. All students that were accepted into the High School categories of Honors Orchestra in the Clark County School District as well as Reno had the opportunity to try out.

Thursday, March 31 began a weekend of focused music-making for the students. To begin, they had auditions to determine their seating placement in the orchestra. Then, they went to a concert and listened to other soloists. After that, they rehearsed for four hours.

The students continued a rigorous rehearsal schedule on Friday and Saturday before their concert performance on Saturday afternoon.

“It was a great learning experience,” Romero said. “But it was also tons of fun. The conductor was quite humorous and I got to meet all sorts of weird people.”