After months of practicing, mock auditions and workshops, 88 West High students traveled to Washington High School for All-State auditions on Oct. 26. After a stressful day of auditions and recalls, 50 West High musicians were accepted into the IHSMA All-State Music Festival.

Violinist Derek Hua ’25 reflects on his first All-State audition experience right after walking out of the audition room.

“I think I did pretty good,” Hua said. “I stumbled a little bit on my solo, but it’s fine. I think everything else but my solo was good.”

Greta Gromacki ’26 was accepted for the All-State choir. She recounts the audition day.

“When the recall lists came out, I thought that I might not have made it because my name wasn’t on it, but the soprano in my trio’s name was on it. I had hope, but I wasn’t sure,” Gromacki said. “I fell asleep in the hallway, and the soprano in my group woke me up suddenly and I ran to see the list. Me, her and our tenor in our trio got into All-State. We were super excited about it.”

Gallery • 6 Photos

Jon Welch

West violists Matthew Lu ’27, Holden Rebich ’25, Max Schebel ’26, Henry Harris ’26 and Kobi Nott ’26 pose with their All-State folders. All five violists that auditioned were accepted.

The following accepted musicians will travel to Ames Nov. 21-23 to perform at the Hilton Coliseum Nov. 23.

* italicized names denote four-year All-State members

Orchestra

Andrew Chen ’25 – Violin 1
Erin Chen ’27 – Violin 1
Nathan Chen ’28 – Violin 1
Shannon Chen ’27 – Violin 1
Sabrina Du ’25 – Violin 1
Jessie Li ’25 – Violin 1
Ephram Liu ’25 – Violin 1
Anjali Lodh ’25 – Violin 1
Anna Song ’25 – Violin 1
Derek Hua ’25 – Violin 2
Jensen Lin ’27 – Violin 2
Shanza Sami ’26 – Violin 2
Flora Zhu ’25 – Violin 2
Christian Kim ’25 – Violin (Alternate)
Lydia Evans ’26 – Violin (Alternate)
Henry Harris ’26 – Viola
Matthew Lu ’27 – Viola
Kobi Nott ’26 – Viola
Holden Rebich ’25 – Viola
Max Schebel ’26 – Viola
Winston Fan ’26 – Cello
Ellie Roetlin ’26 – Cello
Ming Yang ’25 – Cello
Richard Yang ’25 – Cello
Sonya Zhu ’28 – Cello
Solomon Shaffer ’26 – String Bass
Cormac Wilson ’25 – String Bass
Serafim Surguladze ’25 – String Bass

Band

Kento Sugiyama ’27 – Bassoon (Orchestra)
Colin Wehrle ’27 – Alto Saxophone 2
Thomas Tong ’26 – Alto Saxophone (Alternate)
Maddux Neukirch ’27 – Baritone Saxophone (Alternate)
Claire Hahn ’25 – Oboe 1
Emre Orhon ’25 – Bass Trombone (Orchestra)
Henry Lawler ’27 – Trombone 3
Grace Wang ’27 – Trombone (Alternate)
Ian Kraske ’25 – Trumpet (Alternate)
Isabel Ceynar ’25 – French Horn 3 (Orchestra)
Claire Lawler ’25 – Bb Clarinet 1
Caleb Davies ’26 – Bb Clarinet 2
Siddharth Venkatesan ’27 – Bb Clarinet (Alternate)
Thomas Gibson ’25 – Percussion

Choir

Allison Reed ’25 – Soprano 2
Avanley Jones ’25 – Soprano (Alternate)
Greta Gromacki ’26 – Alto 1
Maile Kruse ’25 – Alto (Alternate)
Nathan Butler ’27 – Tenor 1
Gabriel Conrad ’26 – Tenor 2
Eli Asper ’25 – Bass 1
Chase Taylor ’25 – Bass 2

View the full list here.