Welcome!
Welcome to Porchella 2023! Tonight, we will turn our normal high school campus into an all evening music festival. You will hear a variety of styles, songs, and genres and get a glimpse of where our students are at in their musical and performance journey!
We are so happy you have joined us - thank you! Concert goers such as yourself make events like these worth it and encourage our students to keep studying, practicing, and performing.
We have a variety of food options for you and hope you enjoy the selection. A portion of the proceeds will go towards supporting our amazing students and program.
We also encourage you to talk with other members of the audience tonight. We have enjoyed seeing how the community around our students' concerts has grown over the years and getting to know others that are here will continue to strengthen that sense of community.
All in all we look forward to sharing this special night with you and our students as well as your roarus cheers as they put their skills and craft on display!
Guitar 1 - Blues
Tonight's first group will be a collection of students that have opted to explore the improvisatory side of guitar playing. They will be acting as rhythm guitarists, lead guitarists, and soloists throughout the songs tonight. We are incredibly proud of the drive and passion students have demonstrated through their studies into this style of guitar playing.
Students have also been allowed to begin working on new instruments along with guitar. Tonight's selections will be accompanied by Yanyu Shi on Bass, and Bryan Sotelo on Drums.
Blue Monk
Featuring:
Jayden Wang, Shayleb Potdar, Isaac Kim, Drew Soloman, Vincent Mojica, and Justin Salazar
Look-ka Py Py
Featuring:
Kayvon Kowsari, Rachel Mou, Max Manasayan, Greg Bank, Rey Sadegh, Xiaoyu Zhang, and Shusei Robson
Pass the Peas
Featuring:
Sebastian Uyeke, Juno Heneks, Angela Li, Leotytus Cho, Myreen Hawlader, and Apollo Jaan
-Kryptonite
-Let It Be
-Buddy Holly
Nex Li - Lead Guitar
Eddie Chen - Lead Guitar
Eddie Chen - Lead Guitar
Guitar 1 - Contemporary
This group of students also chose the style of music to perform and focussed on how to recreate rock songs ranging from a variety of eras. Students were also encouraged to try out new instruments once they completed their guitar requirements to assist in filling out the sound.
Vocals:
-Tim Lee
-Nicole Brander
-Madalyne Wong
Bass:
-Anthony Riccardi
-Ofelia Ning
-Kenji Fukua
Drums:
-Bryan Sotelo
Keyboard:
-Cody Pauls
-Ahn-Thu Nguyen
-Terry Zhang
Enjoying the art?
We would like to thank Summer Hsieh, a Portola Senior, for her assistance in creating the artwork for this year's concert. Posters, T-Shirts, and Guitar Picks are available for purchase and are a great way to remember this magical night for you and your student. They can be purchased at the ticket table near the music rooms. All proceeds will go towards supporting our thriving arts programs at PHS!
Guitar 2
The students in our Guitar 2 course this year hit the ground running through collaboration, composition, rehearsal, and performance. They took the skills they learned in other courses and melded them together to take the projects for the course to the next level and create amazing art through their hard work. They have been performing since December and have grown as individuals and as band-mates. They have taken creative chances by trying different instruments and styles and have become fantastic performers.
We hope you enjoy the sounds of our Guitar 2 bands!
Bagel Katt
Hey everyone we’re the Bagel kats! Our group members are, Leon the Lion drummer, Brock O. Lee the beaver and rhythm guitar, Vincent the vulture and lead guitar, Angel the ant and bass player and Katy the Kat and the Singer. Today we will be playing “You’re her that’s the thing” and “Talk” both by Beabadoobee and “Misery Buisness” by Paramore.
July Flower
July is the month of fire and passion. Once a year, we bloom like July flowers in dawn.
Scary Terry, Sneha, Andy, Cheng, and Max
King's Cafe
Start your day right at King’s Cafe. Coffee and Music make anything possible.
Rudra, Yujin, Yura, Hunter, Nilan
The Polos
Hi, I’m Marco, and we’re the polos. One way or another (blondie), we’ll take you to war(the crane wives). Showtime at 505 (arctic monkeys). Be there or be square
Marco (drums), Zoe (vocals), Sara (vocals) Kevin (bass), Alice (guitar), Dana (guitar)
Events like tonight would not be possible without the support and assistance of our parents and families. We would like to thank Lourdes Atienza, Erica Borquez, the Thornhills, the Gaonas, Mara Concepcion, Tran Traska, and the Koomars for helping make this night happen! If you are interested in joining our community and continuing to build our events ask Mr. Traska or Mr. Traska about how you can get involved! Meetings happen once a month on Zoom and we have positions of all levels.
Want to help keep us moving forward?
The materials we have to support our students come in no small part from our families generosity. Every cable, amp, stage piece, speaker, and instrument the students have access to is thanks to your support. In order to keep our program reaching out to more students and to keep providing our students with the best possible music making experience we have an Amazon Wish List that we would gladly accept gifts from. The list can be found HERE.
Studio Music
The students in this program have truly taken the task of making great music to the next level throughout the course of this year. They have composed, collaborated, rehearsed, and performed in a variety of settings that has set a new precedent for what being a contemporary music maker at the high school level can be. Each ensemble has worked since the beginning of the year to hone their craft in their own way while navigating the variety of obstacles that this endeavor can present with grace, kindness, and compassion. Their passion shines through their performance and is on constant display in the rehearsal spaces.
Tonight will feature our four ensembles and will showcase their renditions of famous songs, their favorite songs, and most importantly: songs that they have created on their own. It is with great pride that we present our 2023 Studio Music Bands.
Crimson Crush
What's up guys, We're Crimson Crush! We have Yunseo on vocals, Ernie and Ali on Guitar, Inika on bass, Yalie on Keyboard and Victor on Drums, and will be playing a variety of genre for you guys from pop to punk. Thank you for coming to join us tonight at Porchella 2023!! Rock on!!!
Yunseo Choi - Vocals
Ali Agueel - Guitar
Ernest Wang - Guitar
Inika Joshi - Bass
Yallie Amram - Keyboard
Victor Nguyen - Drums
Love and Strings
Hey! We are Love and Strings. Our singers are David Kim and Eric Zhou, on bass is Ishan Pandya and Eric, on rhythm guitar is Selina Syed, on piano is Caleb Lee, our drummer is Breidan, and on lead guitar is Ishan and David. We play American and Chinese love songs that will get the crowd waving their arms back and forth along with the song. We dress in black and white to set the mood, and you will be vibing along when we play!
Sean and the Kidz
We are a group of passionate musicians who share a love for rock music and a desire to create unforgettable experiences for our fans. Hope you guys enjoy our songs!!
Sean Lee - Vocals
Justin Wu - Guitar
Hirsh Dighekar - Guitar
Megan Brander - Bass
Evan Hong - Drums
Max Ge - Keyboard
Ides of May
Ides of May is performing a mix of melancholy nd relaxed tunes with the intention of calming the night.
Natalie Wu - Vocals and Bass
Hans Chen - Drums and Vocals
Sharim Khan - Guitar and Drums
Natalie Wong - Bass and Guitar
Claire Change - Guitar
Gwenn Townley - Percussion
78 Decibels
Hey! We're 78 Decibels and we're a rock and pop group here in Irvine, California with Abella Paniagua as our vocalist, Seif Abaskhairon as our lead guitarist, Marco Machado and Luke Atienza as our rhythm guitarists, Dora Ung as our bassist, and Nick Romesburg as our drummer. We never stop believing 'cause we just beat it. We have a great insight into music with our irises and hope to see you at Porchella. Until then, rock on and shred the silence!
Pop Performance Ensemble
+1ZP
The last ensemble to perform tonight is the flagship contemporary band we have at Portola. Through an audition process these students have been selected based on their work ethic, musicianship, and ability to collaborate. They have found their own unique sound through the blending of various genres and worked together to create a cohesive and entertaining product. They have found ways to compromise and work through difficulties and creative differnces all while continuing to thrive as performers. It has been a joy to observe them, hear what they are working on, and grow throughout their time in the program. We very much look forward to seeing how they continue to grow as musicians in the real world!
From the group:
Our name is +1ZP, and we’re the Contemporary and Pop Performance Ensemble here at Portola High School. We are an all Senior band, with Pao as our lead vocalist, Sky on drums, Grant on lead guitar, Noah on Rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Josh on bass, and Gavin on keyboard. We like to keep a wide range of considerations when choosing our set lists, but for Porchella, we decided to keep true to the “Contemporary and Pop” description of our band. We plan to play 6 songs, ranging from classic rock tunes, including Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet, to modern pop songs, like Everybody Talks by Neon Trees. We plan to give our audience a great performance and hope that they’ll enjoy the night as much as we will!
THANK YOU!
Music is alive and well in Irvine, and that is in no small part thanks to patrons like YOU! Without an audience our music wouldn't have the same meaning and our program would not be as healthy and vibrant as it is. We truly enjoy seeing such a variety of students and musicians in our program and are grateful for the opportunity to provide them a space to share their art and passion with the public. Thank you for coming!
We would also like to thank Mr. John Pehrson, Jen Ochsner, Amy Paulsen, and James Coney for their support throughout the year, Mr. Leo Diego and the facilities staff for keeping our spaces clean and facilitating the evening, Ms. Samantha Sanford and the tech students for their work and facility usage, Mr. Adrian Rangel-Sanchez for the undying support, Mr. Kearci Moir and Summer Hsieh for assisting in the art for tonight, Jonathan Zuniga for his assistance in making the sound magical, Jonathan Zuniga, Luke Thomas, and David Sauer for their expertise and ensemble coaching, and the PE Department for the usage of their excellently crafted games for tonight.
For more information about our upcoming events make sure to follow us on Instagram at @phs_instrumental_music and check back at our website, www.phsmusic.org to save the dates!