On April 29 and 30, several band students competed at the State Solo and Ensemble competition in Ellensburg, Washington.

• Julianna De Jesus - Marimba and Multiple Percussion
• Mark Han - Trombone
• Paul Nguyen - Snare Drum
• "Papa John's" (Parker Cobb, Julianna De Jesus, Paul Nguyen - Small Percussion Ensemble)

A Large Saxophone Ensemble (Kai Alexander, Zander Hamilton, Luke Johnson, Justin Shaw and James Streeter) was also named an alternate for the State competition.

To be eligible for the competition, students had to earn a superior score at the Regions competition and be selected by a judge as the best at Regions in their category. This collection of students is the largest number of entries Eastside Catholic has sent to the State competition.

At the competition, we're proud to announce that Paul Nguyen won the state championship in snare drum! He competed against 21 other regional champion snare drummers and was selected by the judges as the best of the best. You can watch his regional performance here to see how he was able to win the snare drum competition by using door stops and knitting needles. Paul is only the third person from EC to win a State Solo and Ensemble Championship.

The other student competitors from EC also performed well. The small percussion ensemble (Paul Nguyen, Julianna DeJesus, Parker Cobb) were complimented by the judges on their strong sense of pulse, Mark Han (trombone) was complimented on his powerful use of dynamics and Julianna De Jesus (marimba, multiple percussion) was complimented on her musicality.