Two Superior Central students, Nikolas Pasco and Aiyana Taskey, have qualified for separate All State bands that will take them across the state and around the globe.
Pasco, a junior whose music career has already included a tour of Boston and New York City, as well as performances with the University of Michigan-Flint and Northern Michigan University Honor Bands, will now have the opportunity to reach an international audience. In June of 2024, Pasco will travel with the Lions of Michigan All State Band (LMASB) to Melbourne, Australia to attend the 106th annual Lions International Convention. On the return trip, they will stop in Los Angeles to perform at Disneyland California and Universal Studios Hollywood.
“Nikolas is a junior this year. He started as a sophomore doing a local honors band and really enjoyed that process,” says Superior Central music and band teacher Kristy Frederick. “That’s always like, you get your music, learn it, you have one day to rehearse, then you have a concert. So there’s a little pressure, a little intensity. He really enjoyed that. So this year we thought we would expand and see what other opportunities were out there. We started looking around for some of those opportunities to kind of plug into outside of school, and came up with the Lions Club.”
The LMASB states that students “from over 300 Michigan high schools and communities have participated in the band since it took its first marching high-steps, and now averages 45-75 students each year.” The group is “predominately comprised of high school musicians, from a wide variety of Michigan school districts and backgrounds, who have united for a common cause; to share music with those who need to hear it most.”
The Australia tour will hit a number of locations throughout Melbourne, including a national sporting event, a children’s hospital, and a local primary school, among other stops.
“It’s just surreal to know that you’ve accomplished this,” reflects Pasco, “I could never thank my band director enough for giving me these opportunities.”
Another student, Aiyana Taskey, qualified for the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA) All State Band. Only 400 out of roughly 2,500 auditions are chosen each year, and then only a handful from the Upper Peninsula.
According to the MSBOA, students are selected for one of five ensembles after being judged anonymously based on a recorded audition. They will then gather to rehearse for two and a half days before a performance at the Michigan Music Conference. This time, the concert will be held on January 27, 2024, at the DeVos Place Convention Center in Grand Rapids.
“Aiyana has just challenged herself in class for the last few years,” says Frederick. “I always have different opportunities for them to excel. Like, I’ll ask them to learn their major scales. So Aiyana learned all of her major scales, then came back and wanted to learn more, so she learned all of her minor scales, then all forms of the minor scales. That’s something that’s just incredible to have happen with a middle school band student. Like, most of my high schoolers don’t know all of their scales. She was just very interested in learning about her instrument and how to be a better performer.”
Taskey says that, “Originally when I auditioned, I went to my mom and I was like ‘I think I got in,’ and she was like, ‘are you sure about that?’ I was pestering her for most of the time seeing if the results came in. And really when they surprised me, it felt like a really big accomplishment. I know everyone has accomplished stuff in life, but it felt like that was my big thing.”
For information on the Lions of Michigan All State Band (LMASB) and their upcoming trip to Australia, visit https://www.lionsmiband.org/ To learn more about the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA) All State Band, visit msboa.org/Events/All-State.aspx
