Following an intense competition, Pearland Independent School District students from all four Pearland junior high schools secured 148 spots in the all-region band during the Texas Music Educators Association Region 19 auditions on November 4.

 “This truly is an amazing achievement for Pearland ISD and for the selected students,” Tom Bell, Pearland ISD Director of Fine Arts, said. “Instant gratification is absent from any project that takes a few months to complete, like this one. The students got to enjoy it and experience the satisfaction and reward of working on a long-term project that required discipline and dedication.”

The four Pearland ISD junior high bands not only showed that they have talent, but also tenacity.

“In preparation for the competition, the students received the music at the beginning of the school year and participated in weekly after-school rehearsals at their campus. In addition to working with the directors, a specialist on every instrument also went to each school to help them develop specific skills that were related to their instrument. Students also worked with private lesson teachers to develop and perfect the skills needed to perform their region pieces,” Bell said. 

The gains from participating in the all-region band auditions far exceed musical skills.

“Ultimately, the student must develop grit, perseverance and discipline to practice the music on their own. This not only makes every student that participates in the process, regardless of the outcome, a better musician but also develops habits that the students can then transfer to EVERY aspect of their academic and personal lives,” Bell said.

Pearland junior high students who won spots in the all-region band include:

Miller: Esther Abraham, Cameron Alatrash, Alexis Baum, Jaiden Browne, Joseph Cao, Estefania Cordero-Solano, Alexander Cross, Taylor Duncan, Blair Earl, Marcus Flores, Moises Galvan, Paxton Gounah, Wyatt Gras, Abigail Hawks, Jacob Hoang, Aubriana Howard, Henry Hughes, Mikhail Jackson, Layla Kho, Mirai Komatsu, Avery Kopischke, Do-Yoon Lee, Aashish Mahato, Caroline Mao, Cason Marchand, Aaron Marzan, Noah Matthes, Phoebe May, Sebastian Mejia, Logan Miller, Benjamin Morin, Ishan Naik, Donald Naylor, Courtland Nicholson, Jeremiah Packer, Cailin Pascua, Omar Pirzada, Eian Portillo, Garrett Rasmussen, Reed Rowland, Ivan Shen, Zane Stevenson, Morgan Thomas, Grace Tran, Ethan Tupue, Sean Wasko, Carter Winter, Vera Yao, Caylee Young and Kyle Zhou.

West: Oliver Abela, Toluwani Adebayo, Liza Anino, Harshil Aradhya, Jan Belarga, Bailey Brown, Kaden Bui, Fiona Byrd, Ethan Chen, Dhrubo Chowdhury, Elliott Dickson, Adrian Estala, Olivia Estala,  Samuel Frederick, Raymond Gao, Hiram Garza, Eli Gilbert, Mason Gordy, Luca Gracia, Emmanuel Guevara, Zuri Johnson, Miles Kessling, Jinoo Kim, Matthew Kusy, Clara Lemoine, Brekken Ler, Barrett Lewis, Madison Lister, Sean Liu, Olivia Lou, Jerico Marquez, Abigail Marroquin, Christian Mendoza-Scott, Joshua Meng, Eli Mondragon, McGregor Murphy, Brittany Nealy, Rexford Pan, Miles Peterson, Prithvi Raman, Simon Robin, Anthony Rodriguez, Sunvi Sabharwal, Emily Sanborne, Anika Shetye, Haobo Shi, Daniel Sun, Melek Talib, Jeriah Tan, Ariana Villalon, Maya Walsworth-Purkiss, Emily Weber, Drew Westbrook, Brooke Williams, Katherine Wu, Max Xiao, Derek Xu, Ayden Ybarra-Trevino, Ethan Zhang and Hannah Zhang.

East: Zachary Anderson, Joseph Benedek, Julia Calelly, Christian Casas, Graceyn Cliff, Lucas Cummings, Justin Espinoza, Ethan Feifel, Reagan Flores, Gabrielle France, Jacob Frerking, Brylee Gilbert, Winston Gitau, Hayden Glim, Lily Harrison, Emerson Johnston, Darius Jones, Gavin Maricelli, Marcus Perez, Benjamin Schulze, Kynlee Sloan, Clayton Smith, Ethan Trisna, Brody Underwood, Alicia Whited-Loza and Layla Wilson.

South: Amelia Anguiano, Gregorio Barron, Brady Bautsch, Patrick Carmona, Silas Hill, Cayden Ivy, Ethan Milner, Sydney Mortenson, Katherine Perez, Dylan St. Andrew, Nathan Trimm and Caleb Wilson.

(12/10/2023)