Freshmen Perspectives

SHHS band freshmen Emma Sarkissian, Marissa Davi and Fatima Alcantara.

I sat down to chat with three SHHS freshmen band members, Emma Sarkissian, Fatima Alcantara and Marissa Davi about their experiences during their first season with the band. All three of them had previous music experience in middle school prior to coming to SHHS, but only one of them, Marissa Davi, had previous marching experience.

Below are some clips from our conversation:

JC (me): Coming into South Hills Hills School, what were your expectations about band?

Emma S.: I was expecting marching to be hard because I didn't have any experience [marching] before, and I had a small idea of what to expect since I've seen South Hills perform before. But I didn't know it was going to be as hard as it turned out to be. I mean, it was really, really hard.
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JC: What was your favorite moment from the season?

Marissa D.: My favorite moment had to be Championships. Since my brother and sister were in band before me, I knew their history and I really wanted to beat Hart for them. They had a lot of passion when they were students here, and I wanted to have that same kind of passion when I got here. I was happy we beat Hart because of so many years of losing to them... I'm really competitive like my brother so it was sweet when we won.
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JC: What are you most excited about for next season?

Fatima A.: I'm most excited about seeing the band improve, or seeing if we can improve. We'll be losing a lot of good seniors, so I hope the new freshmen who come next year will be just as dedicated as we were this year. And I also want to improve my music skills next year, too.