Teen Arts is an annual festival for students who are in the performing arts at their respective schools. KHS participated this year, competing in the categories of jazz band, symphonic band, instrumental solos, vocal solos, musical theatre, and honors chorus.
The KHS Jazz band went to the Teen Arts competition on April 22, where they performed two of their songs from their 2026 Spring concert repertoire; ‘The Thumb’ and ‘Poinciana’. ‘The Thumb’ featured solos from Sofia Alvizures (alto sax), Noah Sales (tenor sax), Kalebe Garzon (bass), and Joel De La Cruz (bass). ‘Poinciana’ featured solos from Kristina Urbina (flute) and Camila Bedoya (alto sax). The Jazz band got bronze in the competition but overall had the highest score of all the other jazz bands in attendance.
There were a few soloists who performed, such as Noemi Suarez, who played ‘Schindler’s List’ on violin with piano accompaniment. Along with Mario Valles who received gold and Rossy Ramirez, who received silver.
On April 23, Kearny High’s symphony band also went to Teen Arts and performed two of their pieces from the Spring concert; ‘Child’s Lullaby’ and ‘Diamond Variations’. They received an adjudication from Patrick Burns who wrote one of the two pieces they performed, ‘Diamond Variations’. The band received gold and were only two points away from the band that got top honors.
This year, KHS’s annual musical production, James and The Giant Peach also went to Teen Arts. There, they chose four numbers from the play and inputted those into categories of the competition. A Beetlejuice number was also added, with the song ‘What I Know Now’ being performed by a small group of students. Three numbers from James and the Giant Peach were in the large group category, including ‘Right Before Your Eyes’, ‘Money On That Tree’, and ‘Plump and Juicy’. ‘What I Know Now’ from Beetlejuice and ‘Have You Even Begun To Wonder’ from James and The Giant Peach performed for the small group category. Our three large group numbers won a bronze medal and both small groups won silver medals.
For the honors chorus group K-Birds, they performed an Arabic song, ‘Ahlan Wa Sahlan’, by Kyle Pederson for a large group. The term means to welcome others. In the beginning of the song, there is a solo part performed by Maleah Claughberg and then the rest of the group joining in as an ensemble all together. They also entered the small group category with the song ‘I’ll Make A Man Out Of You’ from the movie Mulan, which was performed by six males apart of the group. For both of these songs, the group won silver. In addition to that, they won more medals from the solo category, with Maisie Kelly singing ‘Pure As The Driven Snow’ from Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which won a silver medal. In addition to that, Luis Refosco Medina performed ‘Stars’ from Les Miserables and Miguel Pinero sang ‘Hard Luck Woman’ by the band KISS. Luis won a silver medal and Miguel won gold.
Teen Arts is an important event for the students in the performing arts department at KHS, and this year was the same. If any of the music from this article has interested you, please come to the spring concert on May 20th in the KHS auditorium!