Unalaska Band || Photo from Kerry McNamara

The Unalaska High School band travelled over 1,500 miles to Delta Junction last week for the Aurora Music Festival. This festival brings together fifteen different high schools from around the state for three days of music activities. One part of the festival is the large ensemble adjudication, in which bands perform for two judges who score the bands on various musical elements and decide a winner. For the second year in a row, the Unalaska band took first place in this competition. Another major part of the festival was the honor and mass band rehearsals and performances. The students began rehearsals at 9:00am and continued throughout the day until 10:00pm. 28 Unalaska students were selected for the honor band, with seven first chairs: Celeste Kukahiko on oboe, Trisxia Fernandez on clarinet, Jozel Usi on alto saxophone, Mia Magalong on bass clarinet, Taylor Holman on french horn, Brian Conwell on tuba, and Christopher Garcia on percussion. The students in the mass and honor bands presented a final concert on Saturday evening. Finally, the regional solo and ensemble competition was held at this festival to decide who will compete at State. This year, Trisxia Fernandez (clarinet) and Taylor Holman (French horn) will go on to compete at State Solo and Ensemble. They will perform their solos in Anchorage on May 8. Congratulations, Raider Band!