Two of Fountain Hills High School’s most talented musicians represented the school in the central region honor band and orchestra concert on Feb. 16 at Mountain View High School.

Senior Andrew Merica, a trombone maestro, and Junior Brant Ralph, a trumpet virtuoso, earned their respective spots after auditioning against some of the region’s best musicians.

“You had to play two scales and a chromatic scale,” Ralph said of the audition process. “There were three etudes or pieces that you have to learn and then also site reading; things we have never seen before.”

Ralph was fairly confident going into his audition but found that some nerves were still there once the day finally came.

“I felt pretty good about my audition,” Ralph said. “I had been working with it for two months and felt good going in. Hearing the people around you audition can be kind of nerve-racking because you’ll hear someone rip through something and you think, ‘Wow, they are really prepared, too.’ Once you sit in the chair, though, you just let the nerves go.”

This is Ralph’s first time in the region honor band but Merica earned a chair in the group last year. This year, however, Merica did well enough in his audition to get one of the three spots for trombone players in the orchestra.

“The orchestra audition is the same one as the band [audition],” Merica said. “If you get ranked in the top six you can get put into the orchestra and the top three get first choice, if that makes sense. I got ranked fifth and they put me in.”

Merica found playing with a group of string musicians to be a different experience, but a rewarding one.

“It is interesting because we play less,” Merica said. “The conductor does spend a little less time with us and the time he does spend with us, we get very different information than we do in the band. It was a different learning experience and I liked it a lot.”

Ralph enjoyed the chance to play with other high-caliber musicians.

“It was really fun because everyone has to be at a certain level to get in that group,” Ralph said. “So it makes it easier for you to quickly fit in. Plus, you get to hear people that are better on your instrument, so you get to see what they are doing while sitting next to them. Overall, it was a good experience.”

Next, both Merica and Ralph have the chance to audition again over spring break to move on to the all-state band and orchestra.