Christian Brothers Academy senior Ayo Oguntola recently qualified for the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) All-State Festival on the trumpet for the Symphonic Band.
Oguntola, who performed a level 6 (from levels 1 to 6) trumpet solo at last spring’s NYSSMA festival, received a score of 100 and qualified to play in the Symphonic Band. He is CBA’s first student ever to qualify for the Symphonic Band.
The All-State Symphonic Band will rehearse and perform at the NYSSMA Winter Conference in early December in front of music educators from throughout the state. To be accepted for this honor is extremely competitive, as thousands of high school students in New York audition for it.
In addition to his success at NYSSMA and All-State, Oguntola is the recipient of CBA’s Sarah Lombardi Pietrafesa Music award, awarded to one deserving instrumentalist for the 2018-19 school year.
This past summer, Oguntola toured Europe with the Europe Liberty Tour, a group of student musicians from Syracuse and other parts of New York State. He performed on trumpet for concerts in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Croatia.
