Adam Cordero and Mikayla Chan are among the many music students from Herricks High School who have played in county- and state-wide honor ensembles.
But this year, they join a select few from the school who have gone to play at the Music for All National Festival in groups comprised of the best young musicians in the country.
“(I’m) very, very honored,” said Cordero, a junior.
Cordero, a woodwind player and Chan, a sophomore violinist, will travel to Indianapolis in March to play in the festival’s Honor Band and Honor Orchestra, respectively.
There, they will rehearse with other talented high schoolers from around the country under acclaimed conductors Richard Floyd, director of the Austin Symphonic Band, and Larry Livingston, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.
To make the groups, Cordero and Chan had to submit videos of themselves playing two “contrasting pieces” up to six minutes in total, they said. Conservatory teachers judge their entries against others from around the country.
Both students have played in all-county ensembles before; and Cordero, 16, was in the New York State School Music Association’s all-state ensemble this month.
But spots in the national groups come with more prestige and professionalism, said Chan, 15, a North Hills resident.
“This will be many different people from all places rather then from in the same county,” said Cordero, of Roslyn Heights.
Herricks orchestra teacher Catherine Fish said she encourages her students to audition for and play in these select groups to get as much music experience as they can outside the classroom.
The experiences show them Herricks High is “a small corner of the musical world” and “pushes them in really tangible ways,” she said, such as boosting their confidence.
Cordero and Chan said their teachers were supportive of their efforts to get into the national groups, but their own love for music pushed them to do the necessary work.
“I can’t use words to tell people how I feel, so it’s easier to spill it all out in music,” Chan said.
Chan is the second Herricks student in two years to play at the national orchestra. Dustin Liu, a 2015 graduate, was in the group last year.
Fish said Chan’s practice of “very consistently” setting goals for herself and achieving them led her to make the group as a sophomore, a noteworthy achievement.
“She knows exactly what she wants to do and she does it,” he said.
“I do write a recommendation, but mostly they’re taking the initiative to do the work themselves, record themselves and send it in,” Fish said.
Chan is the first violinist in Herricks’ string quartet and also plays in the chamber orchestra. Cordero plays in the school’s jazz band and wind ensemble.
Both plan to keep music in their lives, and they have their sights set on prestigious conservatories.
Cordero said he wants to attend the New School for Jazz in Manhattan or the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Chan said she’s looking at the Manhattan School of Music and the Julliard School.
Fish said she is glad to see both Herricks’ band and its orchestra represented on the national level.
“For a Long Islander to be able to go to the Midwest and have that experience, and then to play with kids from all different states, and to do it under the direction of these high-caliber professional musicians — it’s not your everyday festival,” she said.
