Ending on a high note

Andres Vela, a music performance senior, took first place at the Texas Music Festival competition this summer and will travel to Leipzig, Germany, in October to perform as a soloist as part of his prize.

Unlike most musicians, Vela’s love for music did not start until he was in middle school.

When he was in fifth grade, his school took a field trip to the McAllen Civic Center, where the high schools came together and put on a show for his class in order to showcase the different arts available for them to choose as an elective, Vela said.

They had to pick their top two favorites, a first and a second option just in case. 

“My first option was theater arts, actually. I enjoyed that very much and orchestra was my second option,” he said. “My sixth-grade year, first couple of weeks, there I am in theater arts class and I didn’t expect it to be what it was. I didn’t enjoy being in the class, so I eventually made the switch and I switched to orchestra class and my teacher was like, ‘OK, what do you want to play?’ and I said I didn’t know anything about music, classical music or anything like that.”

“So, I [told him], ‘Well, I don’t mind. I can play whatever you want me to play’ and he said, ‘Well, we need bass players’ and I said, ‘Great, I’ll be more than glad to play this instrument.’”

Since then, Vela has been persistent and applying to programs to help him grow as a musician.

“I [make] a list of all the festivals I want to apply to, so around January, I list out everything and start doing everything I need to do,” he said. “[I practice and prepare] maybe a month or a month and a half prior to the deadline. Same thing goes once you get accepted.”

In February, Vela applied for the Texas Music Festival, which was held June 1-July 1 at the University of Houston. His application included a résumé and a video of him playing an assigned excerpt of music. Only 90 applicants are accepted into the program.

At the international music festival, students interested in playing professionally meet and learn from notable professional musicians.

“The Texas Music Festival is like a summer camp for college-level musicians, so it’s only for people who are interested in music as a career and are enrolled in university,” Vela said. “It’s a training program,basically, so you go there and you get taught by some leading professionals in the industry who play in major symphonies and they teach lessons [called] master classes, where each student goes up and plays something for the teacher and they give you feedback.”

Concerts are also held weekly, in which students perform music they’ve been practicing the duration of the week, according to Vela.

Additionally, a competition within the program is also held. Thirty applied for this year’s competition.

“They have a competition every summer and, basically, all the musicians [in the program] are invited to compete within the competition,” Vela said. “Basically, you play as a soloist and compete on your own. There is a preliminary round and a final round and the preliminary round had, I believe, 30 musicians who had turned in the application and that turns into five musicians in the final round.”

Vela placed first in the competition and was also the first bass player to win the competition since its founding 28 years ago. His prize included $500, a medal and the opportunity to play in two concerts at the program and an additional concert in Germany later this fall.

“My favorite part [of the festival] was winning the competition,” he said. “As the winner, I got to perform two concerts with the Texas Festival orchestra and got to play as a soloist at the opera house at the University of Houston. That was a very cool experience because bass players aren’t really considered solo instruments and it was actually the first year a bass player won since the festival started. So, it’s really cool to [have that distinction] as the first bass player that won.”

Vela will begin applying to graduate school this semester, as well as continue to participate in performances throughout the year.