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photo by Katie Cole
All-Stater: Dustin Denham with a double bass. He will travel to Alabama All-State Band conference in Mobile in April.
Published Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Dustin Denham’s year keeps getting better.
The double string bass player and Dadeville High School senior was invited to join Auburn University’s orchestra in the fall. Last weekend he secured a spot in the Alabama All-State band.
Denham is thrilled with the honor, and said it took “countless hours of practice” with a private tutor in addition to his school and orchestra practices to prepare for the audition.
“I figured since it was my senior year of high school I might as well compete,” he said. “I was really interested in seeing how I stacked up against other bass players in the state.”
He fared well against those players during his Jan. 30 audition in Montgomery. The judges were hidden behind a screen while he played, but that didn’t stop him from feeling a few butterflies.
“I never really had stage fright while performing, but you do feel a little bit of pressure,” Denham said.
After sightreading music and playing a prepared piece and scales, Denham was selected to one of the three All-State bands.
He will travel to the conference in Mobile in April with DHS band director Chapel McCullough.
“It’s an opportunity for them to participate in a really (advanced) ensemble and play music they wouldn’t get to play in a high school band,” McCullough said.
McCullough said his pupil is “very talented, very intelligent” and has a good work ethic.
“That’s the caliber that makes it to All-State,” he said.
The conference includes clinics for the band directors and lots of practice for the young musicians. The students will have several days to learn new music, which they will perform for family and teachers on the final day of the conference.
Denham, who will enroll in Auburn University in the fall, is looking forward to the challenge.
“I’m really looking forward to getting the music,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult.”
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