Christian Hoschek was selected for the second year to represent High Mowing School at the 13th Annual New Hampshire All-State Chamber Festival last Saturday in Plaistow, along with two other High Mowing students, Fiona Graham and Nimrod Sadeh, who were attending for the first time.

Students prepared and auditioned in November for the New Hampshire Music Educators’ Association All-State Music Festival happening in Concord in April, and four High Mowing School students were accepted — Hoschek, 18, of Temple, Graham, 17, of Wilton, Sadeh, 17, of Wilton and Sophia Darby, 17, of Wilton.

In the same audition, the students were also evaluated for acceptance into the Chamber Festival, which is smaller and more exclusive, including only the students that finish at the top of their particular instrument or voice range, according to Chamber Music Festival Chairman Anthony DiBartolomeo.

“The point of the festival is to afford New Hampshire musicians the chance to take part in chamber music that schools may not offer. And even if they do offer it, it’s a chance to experience a different quality of musicians, because everyone is exceptional,” said DiBartolomeo.

Nearly 400 New Hampshire students are involved in the All-State Music Festival and of those 400 only 140 were selected for the Chamber Festival, said DiBartolomeo.

Hoschek, who plays the viola, Graham, who plays the violin, and Sadeh, who plays the cello, were selected to represent High-Mowing at both festivals. The students prepared their pre-selected audition pieces individually over the summer and traveled to Memorial High School in Manchester to audition on Nov. 19.

“It’s a lot of work,” said Deb Abrahams-Dematte, associate director of admissions at High Mowing School. “You really have to know your theory, and then you have to play, and you have to be able to sight read. You don’t just decide to go, it takes real commitment.”

Each of the three students has been playing their instrument for years, and they each practice up to two hours a day, as well as take private music lessons.

Hoschek and Sadeh both said they stumbled upon their instruments because of a middle-school requirement that all students study an instrument, and both stuck with it once they discovered a love of music. Hoschek said that he chose the viola nearly out-of-hand, and not because he had any particular interest in the instrument.

“It was the best decision of my life,” he said. “Since freshman year my perspective on the viola has changed. I know now that I really want to go out in the world and travel and play music.”

Hoschek said he has decided to dedicate his life to music. He is making a viola as a senior project, and has applied to music schools to further his education, and currently has an invitation to audition for the Manhattan School of Music.

The Chamber Festival was an all-day event for the participating students, culminating in a concert at the end of the evening. The concert consisted of 11 chamber ensembles of high school musicians, who performed their own piece, said DiBartolomeo. The ensembles included the flute choir, woodwind quintet, brass quintet, woodwind choir, brass choir, saxophone quartet, jazz combo, percussion ensemble, male vocal ensemble, female vocal ensemble and string ensemble.

This year, all three High Mowing students played with the string ensemble, which performed the 4th Movement of Mendelssohn’s 8th Symphony according to Graham.

“The piece isn’t too technical, but it’s a really fast speed, so I’m playing every day and speeding it up a little each time,” said Graham. She added that she doesn’t feel up to concert standard yet, but is practicing and improving every day. “I’ve been working towards it for awhile, since I got the music, but I need a little more time,” she said.

Hoschek said that in preparation, he has been practicing about two hours a day, spending the first hour doing scales and technical work, and then a second hour concentrating on full pieces.

Hoschek, who is also a member of the Boston Youth Orchestra, attended the Chamber Festival for a second time and the Music Festival for the fourth time. He said he has gradually lost his anxiety about the audition process since he began as a freshman.

“I feel like as far as the auditions go, I’ve practiced less intensively over the four years. I had complete intensity in freshman year and each year it’s been less stressful,” he said.

Sadeh, a cello player who auditioned for the festival for the first time this year, said his audition for the Music Festival was a first. “I’d never auditioned before, but I would say it went well,” he said. “I was excited for it.”

Graham said that she had a similar lack of audition experience. “I’m pretty used to concerts and performances, but last year was my first audition,” she said. After being notified of their acceptance into the festivals, the musicians were given their ensemble’s music selection to begin to prepare for the festival.

Last week, Sadeh said that he, Graham and Hoschek have not been working much together on the piece, but he has been practicing individually every day to prepare himself. “I’m a little nervous, but it’s just the one piece, so that helps,” he said.

Graham, who participated in the All-State Music Festival last year, said that this is the first year that she has been accepted into the Chamber Festival.

“I had no idea that I was going to get in,” she said. “I worked as hard as I could to get into the Music Festival, so it was a nice extra.”

Hoschek, the only student to be returning for a second year to the Chamber Festival, said the preparation done at the festival for the concert was very intense.

“Last year was really insane,” he said. The students would practice for three or four hours at a stretch, with breaks for meals, preparing all day for the concert that night, according to Hoschek.

“First we focused on the overall piece, before delving into the details,” he said. “It’s really hard. To work all the details in that amount of time is a lot to demand, but I think it’s good, because it’s a good way to learn music quickly.”

Graham described her experience last year with the longer three-day All-State Music Festival in April as being similar, with three days of practice culminating in a concert on the last day.
“We rehearsed all day long. It was a lot of work, but I really liked it,” she said.

The three students accepted into the Chamber Festival were also among five chosen to receive scholarships from the High Mowing Music Scholarship Committee to use towards the application fees for the music festivals, as well as for music lessons and summer programs.

Hoschek said that he received a David Anderson Music Fund scholarship of $850, which he said is going to go towards paying his All-State Music Festival fees and music lessons.

This article appeared in the Jan. 5, 2012, edition of the Ledger-Transcript.