Montezuma-Cortez High School senior Skyler Smith and his trumpet will be traveling around the state to begin 2016.
In November, Smith sent in a taped audition for the Colorado Bandmaster’s Association Western Slope Honor Jazz Band, and in December, he received a text from M-CHS bandleader Rodney Ritthaler informing him that he had been selected.
“They emailed him, and he sent me a text message,” Smith said. “And I was pretty excited. It was cool because I did it last year, but I wasn’t first chair, so that’s what I was hoping for this year.”
“Skyler got interested in it last year,” said Ritthaler. “He was the first student I ever had audition for it last year, and he was second chair then. He auditioned for the lead (this year) and got the lead trumpet part.”
The CBA Western Slope Honor Jazz Band consists of four different bands composed of students from across the Western Slope, and Smith is the top trumpet in the advanced band.
As part of the group, he will perform in Grand Junction on Jan. 8-9, playing big band jazz songs such as, “I Wish,” by Stevie Wonder.
Shortly after learning he’d been selected to the CBA Western Slope Honor Jazz Band, Smith was informed that he was also selected as the second-chair trumpet for the CBA All State Jazz Band small school division.
Smith was chosen from trumpeters in Class 1A, 2A and 3A schools across the state.
For the All State Jazz Band, he will be packing up and heading to The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs to rehearse and perform during the CMEA State Convention, Jan. 27-30.
But the achievements didn’t stop there.
Smith also placed fourth-chair in the Colorado All State Symphonic Orchestra.
Ritthaler explained that there are only four total trumpets for the entire state in the group, calling the All State Symphonic Orchestra, “the top group in the state.”
And Smith and his trumpet represent M-CHS as one of the four.
