The 32 McCallum musicians who were accepted to the TMEA Region 18 orchestra performed at the AISD PAC on Nov. 18. Six students then went on to make All-State.

Students who auditioned for region were given their music in May and were able to practice over the summer and the months leading up to the Oct. 7 auditions. Region is a blind audition, meaning that the judges were behind a curtain while students played and the students were given numbers, so the judges did not know who they were judging. Each student auditioning played two excerpts. In the end, nine violinists, four violists, two cellists, six bassists and one harpist made it into the Symphony Orchestra (the top orchestra), which is a full orchestra that plays with a complete band ensemble conducted by Dr. Kayoko Dan. Five violinists, two violists, three cellists and one bassist made it into the String Orchestra conducted by Andrew Potter.

One McCallum orchestra student who made it into the Symphony Orchestra was senior Georgia Halverson who got the title of concertmaster (first chair) as the highest-ranking violinist. She was also one of the six McCallum students who made it into All-State. Halverson has been playing the violin since she was 4 years old and has made region every year since 2018, ranking ninth last year. Assistant orchestra director Erika Elder said she was a student in 2013, the last time a McCallum orchestra member was concertmaster.

For Halverson, this year’s audition was different from every other year because it was about conquering fears.

“This year was different for me because I’ve made a lot of progress in the past year with just my skill set and my mindset around the music,” Halverson said. “So this year I was focused on conquering my fear of playing in front of people and I felt like I was pretty successful with that. I’m really proud of what I accomplished this year.”

Halverson, who is applying to college for violin, was able to practice for three hours on some days during her off period and violin class. Earning the title of concertmaster comes with new challenges, but Halverson is proud of all she has accomplished so far.

“I was very excited but also nervous because this year there was a lot more pressure to know the music really well,” Halverson said. “I’m really proud of myself for managing my nerves and playing the way I wanted to instead of letting them take control of me.”

Halverson also had a positive experience as a leader for her fellow musicians.

“I had a great time leading the orchestra this year,” Halverson said. “It was cool to see what it’s like to communicate between the other section leaders and the conductor in such a large group setting.”

Halverson advises future orchestra members to keep a healthy mindset during competitions.

“Just do the best you can to keep a healthy mindset around these competitions because it’s really easy to be overwhelmed and feel like the only thing that matters is being competitive with other people,” Halverson said.

Another orchestra student who made it into region was junior Shira Bracha. She is in the McCallum Chamber Orchestra  which is the top orchestra at Mac. Bracha has played the cello since she was in kindergarten and has previously made region four times. In the end, she got into the Symphony Orchestra as the sixth chair, which was the highest placement received by a McCallum cellist this year.

The Symphony Orchestra pieces were “Italian Capriccio” by Tchaikovski and “William Tell Overture” by Rossini. While Bracha knew the music was going to be challenging, she knew that it would also be rewarding.

“It was pretty hard, but it was going to be fun,” Bracha said. “They’re famous pieces. It’s really fun to play with the band and I don’t get many opportunities to do that.”

After Bracha got the audition music, she practiced for months. She broke the music down slowly and then she brought it back together. She started at a slow tempo with no bowing then began to add everything back to the excerpts until she got them where she wanted them.

Going into the region audition, Bracha felt confident with where the excerpts were at but knew there were possibilities for error.

“I felt like I was going to be fine unless I made a big mistake,” Bracha said. “I wanted to get into the top orchestra and it ended up working out because I did good.”

Bracha said she felt good about her ranking but is going to do certain things differently next year in hopes of a better result.

“I think overall, I still get kind of nervous, and mess up a lot but I’ve kind of gotten better,” Bracha said. “I could have had more dynamics when I played to keep it interesting but overall I kept steady, and I played all the right notes. Next time I want to work on making it sound more interesting with more dynamics because I could probably score higher.”

Bracha’s expectations for the results of her region audition were exceeded.

“I was a little surprised by the region results,” Bracha said. “I thought I probably got into the top orchestra but I wasn’t sure if I had done that well, so it was a pleasant surprise.”

In the end, Bracha believes that even though the audition process may be intense, it is worth it.

“It’s not very fun to audition but once you get in, playing in that big orchestra is a good experience, and it’s actually pretty fun to play with all those people,” Bracha said.

Orchestra director and Region 18 Orchestra chair Ricky Pringle does a variety of things to help students prepare for region. Not only do students practice in their instrument classes but they also practice what the auditions will actually be like by playing in front of their orchestra classes with everyone watching and then receiving teacher feedback, just like they would at region.

Because McCallum has more region students than any other school, Pringle has broad expectations but likes to perform well relative to other districts.

“I never set a number for how many students I want to get into region,” Pringle said. “I just like us to look good compared to the rest of the district. And we did that.”

McCallum High School was the first place in Austin to give Pringle a chance.

“McCallum High School chose me,” Pringle said. “I was a young teacher and I had been teaching in Houston for two years. I came to Austin and I did a series of interviews and McCallum was the first one to give me a job offer.”

Pringle is happy with where his career has taken him and feels as though the time at McCallum has changed his teaching.

“Being here at McCallum I feel at home, ” Pringle said. “If someone had told me 23 years ago I would still be here. I probably would have been shocked. It wasn’t that I planned to be here for this long. But the time has been enjoyable. Over the years my teaching style has definitely changed and evolved over the years, with many things like the changing of times because culturally and societally we are at a different place than we were 23 years ago. The pandemic taught me how to be more patient involving students.”

Pringle said he plans to stay with the Mac orchestra for years to come.

“I enjoy teaching at McCallum, and I plan to stay here and probably finish my career at this school,” Pringle said. “In terms of region, I’m really proud of all the work that our students did to be successful.”