DPS Student Shone in the All-State Band

HISPANIC FLUTIST | Karin Sotillo with Russell Mikkelson, guest conductor of the All-State Symphonic Band 2022. (Photo/ Guillermo Sotillo)

KARIN SOTILLO WAS SOLOIST AT THE CONCERT AT UNC

Sofia Márquez / El Comercio de Colorado

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The first weekend in April, some 200 high school students gathered at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) to participate in the 71st All State-Band Symphonic Ensemble. After months of preparation, they were ready to go on stage and perform in front of members of the community and their family and friends.

The UNC School of Music and the Colorado Band Teachers Association hosted the program, for the first time in two years, due to the pandemic. Students from three dozen Colorado schools were greeted with a concert by the UNC band. They spent the next two days rehearsing for the central concert

ALL-STATE BAND| Karin Sotillo performed as a soloist with the orchestra of 111 young musicians.

Representing Denver

Karin Sotillo, a student at Abraham Lincoln High School (ALHS) in Denver, was one of the students invited by UNC. She was the only Denver Public Schools (DPS) representative to attend this year’s concert. Karin is also the first in ALHS history to receive the prestigious honor of performing with the All-State Band.

Karin has been playing her instrument, the flute, since she was just seven years old. She fell in love with the flute one afternoon when her father took her to see a live orchestra, and she says it changed her life. From that moment on, her career as a flutist took off. In her native Venezuela she received private lessons and when she emigrated to the US she also found a flute teacher.

SYMPHONIC ENSEMBLE | All members of the All-State Band are high school students in Colorado. (Photo/UNC Press)

Prepare for the audition

Her music teacher, Hollie Rickman, encouraged her to audition for the All-State Band. “She told me that I could participate, and that it would be a great opportunity for me, to be in this great orchestra, with these great musicians, and that it would be an opportunity to meet directors and music professors from other universities.”

Karin began practicing in the summer of 2021 with the sheet music given to her by Rickman. This young musician worked hard because she had to face some 600 hopefuls who wanted to join the All-State Band. She and all the applicants had to record an audition video to be evaluated by members of the UNC music school.

Chosen as a soloist

It wasn’t just accepted. She managed to place in the top of the best applicants being selected to be one of the three soloists in the concert. With the invitation to be part of the band, Karin received copies of all the musical pieces to be performed at the concert. She spent months practicing them and perfecting their execution.

Karin paid particular attention to one of the sheet music. She was going to have to be a soloist in the piece “Angels in the Architecture” by the North American composer Frank Ticheli. This is a contemporary piece that premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2008. When Karin got up on April 7 to perform this piece, she had mastered it perfectly.

A Pleasant Experience

“It was a relaxed atmosphere, but everyone focused. We practiced two days from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a lunch break”, it all paid off in the end, when they were able to show off their hard work during her concert on Sunday afternoon. “This whole experience was very rewarding, and proves that goals can be met,” concludes Karin,

She feels honored to have been accepted into the band. She also understands how important her attendance at the concert was to her high school and she expressed how proud she is to represent Abraham Lincoln High School and to have played her beloved instrument in front of so many people.