6 from Coronado High orchestra merit All-State honors

       Four Coronado High School students are playing in the annual All-State Orchestra concert Feb. 12 in Fort Collins.
       They are senior Aleksa Kuzma on viola (third straight year), junior Nathaniel Lohmann on bassoon (second year), sophomore Sarah Carter on double bass and senior Ernie Glock, also on double bass.

Coronado's All-State Orchestra selections: Lydia Oates (left), Ernie Glock, Nathaniel Lohmann, Aleksa Kuzma, Michelle Wood and Sarah Carter.
Westside Pioneer photos

       Two more Cougars, junior Lydia Oates on violin and and senior Michelle Wood on viola, are alternate picks and will get to play if other All-Staters can't make it.
       Musicians were judged on the basis of audition CDs/tapes that they sent in to the All-State Orchestra organization last fall. Students are eligible in grades 10-12.
       All of the Coronado selectees have been playing since elementary school, for the most part on their current instrument.
       Kuzma said she hopes to major in music at CU-Boulder, with a focus on performing and a long-range goal of conducting.
       Lohmann was also an All-State Band selection this year for the same instrument.
       Asked how she decided on double bass, Carter said her fourth-grade teacher played the music from “Jaws,” and “I thought it was awesome,” how the instrument was used to play the ominous two-note shark theme, Carter recalled.
       Glock said he was influenced toward the same instrument because he likes its capability for low notes.
       Oates hopes to go on to become a music teacher, she said.
       Wood, who started on violin in third grade, said she switched to viola two years ago because “I like the deeper tones.”
       Coronado junior viola player Jasmine Kemble also was selected to All-State - her second straight year - but decided against participating this time, according to school orchestra instructor Richard Kusk.

Westside Pioneer article