RESTON, Va. — During the 2019-20 school year, along with other accomplished music students across the United States and overseas in military base schools, Elijah Huttman, a sophomore at Hall-Dale High School in Farmingdale, practiced with dedication to gain a chair or part in his local, district, and state music honor ensembles, according to a news release from the National Association for Music Education.

Elijah Huttman Contributed photo

Huttman will join the “best of the best” for the association’s 2020 All-National Honor Ensembles virtual event on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 7 and 8. The first ever All-National Honor Ensembles virtual event will include several rehearsals with the 2020 ensemble conductors and workshops with renowned clinicians. Each ensemble will create a final, recorded performance that will be premiered online during the association’s Music In Our Schools Month in March.

Huttman of Richmond has been selected to play oboe with the All-National Symphony Orchestra. Huttman plays music under the direction of David Morris. Debbie Large was the director at the time he auditioned. He began playing oboe in fifth grade and also plays oboe and viola in the Mid Maine Youth Orchestra. He was a 2019 Young Stars of Maine Elsie Bixler Junior Prize winner and attended the New England Music Camp Chamber Music Intensive this summer. He also plays tenor sax in his school jazz band, sings in jazz choir and participates in musical theater. Huttman’s parents are Leticia and Loretta Huttman of Richmond.

According to the release, the All-National Honor Ensembles performers represent collaboration and creativity in its highest musical form. The ensembles consist of a concert band, symphony orchestra, mixed choir, jazz ensemble, guitar ensemble, and modern band (now in its second year). Students were chosen through an audition process. The concert band and symphony orchestra will each have 120 instrumentalists each, the jazz ensemble 13 instrumentalists, the mixed choir 241 vocalists, the guitar ensemble 45 instrumentalists, and the modern band 13 performers.

Selected students will rehearse a challenging repertoire in preparation for performing under the direction of six of the most prominent conductors in the United States: Frances Fonza (Mixed Choir); Nobuyoshi Yasuda (Symphony Orchestra); Rodney Dorsey (Concert Band); Todd Stoll with Terell Stafford (Jazz Ensemble); Chuck Hulihan (Guitar Ensemble); and Tony Sauza (Modern Band). All conductors have received top honors in their field and will spend several days rehearsing with students before the concert.

National Association for Music Education, among the world’s largest arts education organizations, is the only association that addresses all aspects of music education.

For more information, visit nafme.org.