Senior Joshua Rodriguez and juniors Aaron Goldman and Raz Aloni displaying their trophy at WGI Percussion World Championships. The three CCHS students came in second place as part of the group Stryke Percussion. Photo Courtesy Of STRYKE PERCUSSION
BY ALEX BARNARD
Three Cooper City High School students finished second in class at the WGI Percussion World Championships in Dayton, Ohio 0n April 16, 2011.
The students were playing as part of the group Stryke Percussion, an Independent Open class indoor percussion group that started in 2003 and is based out of West Palm Beach, Florida. Stryke’s show this year was titled “Pressure” and received a final score of 93.088, only 0.787 points away from the first place winner, The Santa Clara Vanguard, from Santa Clara, California.
The three students (Juniors Aaron Goldman, Raz Aloni, and Senior Joshua Rodriguez) have been practicing with the group since the tryouts in September. Stryke is made out of percussionists playing a variety of instruments and contains members up to 22 years old.
Indoor percussion groups are made up of two primary sections, the stationary front ensemble called the pit, and the marching drum line called the battery. The Pit is where Aloni spends his time playing the xylophone and Rodriguez plays a series of drums and cymbals on the “Rack”. Goldman is the one Cooper City student on Stryke’s battery and plays the snare drum, a singular drum used for the majority of the show’s complex rhythms.
WGI rates the percussion groups based both on the music they play, as well as by the visual performance of the groups. WGI holds a series of 42 regionals around the world all narrowing the selection of over 170 percussion groups from over 40 states and 4 countries down into the few that compete in the three-day world championships.
“Performing with Stryke was an awesome experience, and I hope to be able to continue to perform at the WGI’s next year,” Goldman said.
Although the WGI season is over the students hope to progress their abilities farther and continue to compete. They look forward to the 2012 season auditions this September at John I Leonard High School.
