Enjoy these recent photo albums. Past albums can be found on the official Poway High School Music Boosters Flickr site.
The Poway High Orchestra played at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts for the first time in over a year! (on Wed 6/09/21) Thank you Prinicipal Nash and the Directors for making this happen. We are one of the few schools to have live performances this year. Thank you to all the students and parents for sticking with the program and performing. Add this to our Covid Chronicles.
Here is the entire performance and photos from that night. Several Senior solos will be posted separately.
The Poway High Wind Ensemble I, played at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts for the first time in over a year! (on Thurs 6/10/21) Thank you Prinicipal Nash and the Directors for making this happen. We are one of the few schools to have live performances this year. Thank you to all the students and parents for sticking with the program and performing. Add this to our Covid Chronicles.
Here is the entire performance and photos from that night. The one Senior Solo will be posted separately as well.
Ryan Whitson
Ryan has been in the PHS Emerald Brigade, Wind Ensembles, and Jazz Band for four years, as well as the Symphony Orchestra and Musical Pit Orchestra for 2 years. He is also a member of the Die Lieder Singers. Outside of school, Ryan is currently the principal bass trombonist of the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra as a 5 year member. Ryan is a NafME All-National, CBDA All-State, and SCSBOA All-Southern Honor Ensemble musician, and is a Semifinalist in the Southeast Trombone Symposium Youth Competition, which takes place this July at the International Trombone festival. He has studied with Sean Reusch since 7th grade.
Ryan’s senior solo was first written as a tenor trombone solo in 1844, and later transcribed down a perfect 4th for bass trombone. Ryan will be pursuing a Bachelor’s of Music in Music Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music this fall, where he will be studying with Randall Hawes.
Edward Gill
Edward has been playing violin since his fifth grade year at Painted Rock Elementary, where he played in the orchestra. He then performed in the Twin Peaks Middle School Orchestra for three years, studying privately with Lillian Chen. Winter/Spring of this eight grade year Edward and his family lived in Australia, and he played in the Meridan State College school orchestra, as well as the school’s chamber octet. He then went on to play in the PHS Symphony Orchestra for four years, as well as in the Musical Orchestra Pit for the PHS production of Singin’ in the Rain in 2019.
This year Edward is the concert master; next fall Edward will study Human Biology at UCSD, hoping to balance his studies with his passion for music.
Tori Constantine
Tory has been playing percussion since 6th grade after playing violin in elementary school. She has been in the Emerald Brigade for four years playing marimba, spending three years as a percussion section leader. She has performed in both Wind Ensembles. She has won awards individually in middle school as well as part of the PHS Musical Orchestral Pit for 2 years. Tory will be going to Miramar Community College with the goal of becoming a Marine Mammal Care Specialist. Tory would like to give special thanks to her private music teacher Catherine Barnes for imparting seven years’ worth of wisdom and tutelage; she would also like to thank her family for all of the support shown in Tori’s musical education.
The solo she is performing tonight is the theme song written by Joe Hisashi for one of the beloved Hayo Miyazaki / Studio Ghibili (the Japanese Walt Disney) animated file HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. This arrangement was created by Tori specifically for this event. The song is an upbeat waltz with a fantastical & whimsical charm that all Studio Ghibli films have
Ben Langer Weida
Ben has been playing piano since first grade. He has been in the viola section of the PHS Symphony Orchestra for four years, played keyboard in Jazz Band for four years, and has played keyboard in the Musical Pit Orchestra for two years. He has also performed in several smaller ensembles outside of campus, including several string & jazz ensembles, as well as with his band, Paper Moon. Ben has studied privately under Martha Deering and Yelena Kapchinsky, and has completed several years of National Guild auditions: most recently achieving his High School Diploma in Social Music.
Ben will be performing the first movement of Anton Rubinstein’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, composed in 1864. The piece is originally dedicated to Alexander Villong, the composer’s principal piano teacher. In the fall Ben will attend Occidental College, and plans to study both music and a STEM field.
Evan Asakawa
Evan has been playing trumpet since fifth grade. He has been in Poway High School’s top Wind Ensemble and lead trumpet of Jazz A since his sophomore year, and has also been the principal trumpet of the PHS Symphony Orchestra and Musical Pit Orchestra since his junior year. Evan was first trumpet for the SCSBOA All-Southern CA Honor’s Wind Ensemble and the principal trumpet of the CMEA All-State Concert Band in 2020. He has been the PHS trumpet section leader for two years, and was a featured duettist in the 2019 Emerald Brigade marching field show. Evan has been studying privately with Ray Nowak for three years.
The piece Evan is playing this evening, the Arutunian Trumpet Concerto, was written in 1950. The concerto is an energetic powerhouse of Easter European lyricism and harmonic textures, and was quickly assimilated into the standard trumpet repertoire worldwide: earning the highest international praise from audiences, critics, and performers. Evan plans to study mechanical engineering at UC Santa Barbara while finding ways to still play music.
