Kingwood Orchestra closed this out-of-ordinary school year with a Virtual Banquet via Zoom. Even during this atypical situation, the organization still came together to celebrate the year with fun activities, superlatives, and recognizing our Class of 2020 Seniors. 

Starting out the banquet, we highlighted our orchestra’s amazing accomplishment for the school year. We had total of 34 officers, 54 students qualifying for TMEA Region 33 Orchestra, 269 students receiving superior rating at UIL solo and ensemble, over 100 of them qualifying for Texas State Solo and Ensemble, and the KHS symphony receiving straight 1 rating at UIL.

During our highlights, we honored 34 students who qualified for Texas Music Scholars:

Katie Afdahl (9,Violin)             Amilah Azam (12, Violin)

Jaela Barrera (9,Viola)            Bradley Buttefield (10, Viola)

Andrew Christy (12, Violin)      Kaylee Corbin (11, Violin)

Eric Febles (12, Violin)            Anna Fuentes (12, Viola)

Dominic Glaze (9, Violin)         Olivia Grohn (12, Violin) 

Phoebe Han (9, Violin)            Jacob Hansen (11, Harp)

Dylan Huynh (12, Violin)         Heath Jackson (11, Viola)

Cameron Kristoff (11, Bass)    Sylvia Latimer (9, Harp)

Shelby Lexow (10, Bass)        Kelly Liu (11, Violin)

Audrey Miller (11, Viola)          David Molina (9, Bass)

Nathan Palmer (11, Bass)       Madison Parkins (11, Violin)

Alexis Pubentz (11, Viola)       Erick Putnam (9, Bass)

Neha Shaw (11, Cello)            Bridget Shull (12, Violin)

Ignatius Sison (9, Violin)         Austin Taylor (9, Cello)

Jack Telford (11, Cello)           Anthony Tellez (10, Violin)

Ian Thorn (11, Viola)               Heather Turner (11, Cello)

After highlighting our year, we showcased our finalists for The Great KHS Orchestra Bake-Off and Best Dressed Virtual Contest. The Bake-Off is a tribute to our Class of 2020 seniors, and they were judged based on Taste (siblings/parents judged),Presentation, Difficulty and Creativity. Best Dressed Contest is decade theme to follow the banquet theme. Madison Parkins received first place for the Bake-Off and Heather Turner for Best Dressed.

Following the Bake-Off and Best Dressed Contest, we recognized our underclassmen and senior superlatives determined by peer voting. Superlatives were Most Likely to become a soloist (Austin Taylor/ Dylan Huynh), Most Likely to be late to a concert (Luker Herbst/ Travis Dong), Most Likely to be shushed during rehearsal (Zach Perez/ Joseph Refvik), Most Likely to come in early (Cailyn Young/ Anna Fuentes), Most Likely to turn in a charms test at the last second (Jaela Barrera/ Daxon Maranto), Most Likely to finish tuning before the 2 minute timer goes off (Michael Louie/ Olivia Grohn), Most likely to be in the practice room (Laurel Engelhardt/ Amilah Azam), Most likely to talk during rehearsal (Moyu Yumoto/ Zach Bednarcyk  ), Most likely to be an orchestra director (Hope LaRoche/ Heather Turner), Most likely to eat during class (Taryn Bathurst/ Rachel Mitchell), and Whitest Sneaker Award (Phoebe Han/ Bridget Shull). Senior Mr & Mrs KHS Orchestra was awarded to Eric Febles and Bridget Shull.

Next came the senior slideshow put together by our historians Neha Shaw and Daphne Han was presented, following senior speeches.

We finished the evening by playing a giant Kahoot game. The game tested our knowledge in trivias about our directors, Kingwood High School, music history and music in general.

Although the year was ended in an  unexpected way, the Kingwood Orchestra family still came together to end the year even in this circumstance. Thank you to our amazing directors and officers for putting all of it together, and all the students that participated!