Herndon High School’s Guitar 3 and 4 Ensemble students. Photo contributed
Herndon High School’s Guitar 3 and Guitar 4 Ensemble earned top awards and distinguished recognition at the Festivals of Music competition in Virginia Beach on April 25. Both ensembles outscored all other participating music ensembles including all choirs, bands, and orchestras. Guitar 4 was the only ensemble to earn the coveted “superior” rating with a score of 93 and won first place. Guitar 3 earned the second highest score of 89 and a rating of “excellent”, taking the second place award. This is the 10th consecutive year that Herndon's top ensemble has earned Superior ratings since its first competition in 2005.
After the competition, one judge remarked that the HHS students are achieving near perfection on most complex music and that he knows of no high school or college guitar program that would attempt this literature. Under the direction of HHS Guitar Studies Director Christopher Cunningham, the Guitar 4 students performed Hungarian Rhapsody #2 by Franz Liszt and arranged specifically for the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet—the premier professional guitar ensemble today.
Herndon Guitar Ensembles were also graced with the sole Esprit de Corps award for professionalism, class, appearance and decorum, and spirit.