The school’s band is an important part of CSCS, continuously showing great support and school spirit. Amar Shatila, a junior who has been a part of the band for four years, has invested much of her time and efforts into the important role she plays in the band.
Amar is the percussion captain and takes her role seriously. “There is a fine balance between being strict during rehearsals and being able to be yourself outside of them.” Shatila says. She has a good relationship with her peers, however during practice she still maintains her professional side as a leader. “I’ve been told by a lot of people that me during rehearsals is very strict, but outside of it they’re just like ‘hey you’re cool!.’”
Her role as percussion captain is going well as of right now, however at the beginning, it had brought her many challenges. “I’ve had to work with a lot of beginners this year,” Shatila says, “so learning how to teach people who never really understood these concepts was a really big struggle for me, but I think they have improved a lot.” Over time Amar had overcome these challenges and ended up not only bettering her peers, but also improving on her teaching skills.
When it comes to percussion, there are a variety of instruments that can be played. Percussion is any instrument that makes a sound when it’s hit, shaken, or scraped. When it comes to Amar, she tends to strive for more “melodic keyboard percussion.” She plays the marimba, vibraphone, etc.
Ever since she started her band journey in 8th grade, she always dedicated time for it. When she has any type of free time during class, she always takes it as an opportunity to ask to go practice. During marching season, her practices can go from 4-12 hours; during concert season, rehearsals are in class. With this type of hard-work and dedication she has, she believes and strives to be next year’s band captain.
Not only does she have exceptional talent in band, but she’s also gifted in her arts. She has always been interested in drawing, but she started to take it more seriously in her freshman year. Over the years, she improved her skills enough to the point she opened her own business selling art. Her website is called bazaararts and it has been up for almost a year now. She sells things such as stickers she has designed, paintings, digital art, etc.
She set her website up because she wants to pursue art in college. “Always having some sort of business, something to show your work, is usually really good for like getting yourself into, you know, some sort of art college,” Shatila explains, “and it also gives you a basic understanding to meet supply and demand, especially when meeting deadlines.” She is committed to getting into more art based schools, and made her efforts not only a way to achieve her goals, but also to make profit out of it.
As of now, Amar is working on updating her website, and doing some rebranding for her business. For band, she has symphonic band camp and an upcoming show on Sunday, January 19.
“Every once in a while after a taxxing journey and a thrilling performace, Mr. Cardona always says, “the performance is for the audience and the journey is for the performers, so enjoy it while it lasts.”