Two performance ensembles from the Alisal Union School District earned top honors earlier this month, securing first-place finishes at the 2025 Northern California Percussion Alliance Championships, showcasing the district’s support of arts education.

Formed in 2010, the Alliance is a nonprofit organization created by educators with the purpose of improving opportunities of indoor percussion ensembles in Northern California. Composed of over 120 first-sixth grade students, the All Star Ensemble and the Alisal Performance Arts Academy both took home first place in their respective categories during the competition earlier this month.

“The District is proud of these student performers, the teachers, coordinators, volunteers and everyone who supports the success of the performing arts program,” said Superintendent Jim Koenig in a news release. “Hard work pays off, and these students have certainly worked hard to perfect their skills and be where they are now.”

The ensemble consists of the All Star drumline, color guard, cheer and marimbas players. The groups performed together for the first time in the Scholastic Junior Class and all received gold medals for their performance.

For the third year in a row, the Alisal Performance Arts Academy received first place in the Scholastic Concert Junior Class. The academy is composed of mariachi, the district’s folklorico academy and marimbas, an instrument similar to the xylophone. Since they began competing together three years ago, the group has had three consecutive wins, with this year’s competition being their highest score to date.“When we look at the competition, we see five to six minutes of music and it’s truly wonderful and brings joy to us as the audience,” said Daniel Algazy, the artistic director at FORXA Inc., an outside provider that helps oversee the music programs. “It’s also (about) life skills. It’s teaching students … they can be someone as part of a team that they might not always feel like on their own and get that strength.”

The All Star Ensemble began in 2013 with two after-school drumline classes offered at two schools which was made possible through a partnership with a local nonprofit. The district won a California School Boards Association Golden Bell Award in 2022 for its extended learning program which includes performing arts, STEM and sports.

As well as FORXA, Alisal Union partners with other local organizations to support students in these programs. Danzantes del Valle, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing cultural awareness through dance, supports students performing folklorico, the traditional Mexican dance.

The district has 15 programs for over 2,000 students, ranging in grade levels. The older students often help teach skills to the younger kids and they are often all brought together to perform during practice, according to Algazy.

“One of the best things about our program is that it’s not grade exclusive,” said Algazy. “That growth through their six years, if they’re with us the entire time they’re in the district, it’s just awesome.”

Students in the program are encouraged to embrace their culture and connect it to their arts education. Through FORXA, students were visited by a mariachi band and a mariachi historian who presented to students and their families about the history of the music genre.

“That helped strengthen the connection not just of the students to the art itself, but between them and their parents,” said Algazy. “You know, these are the songs that are celebrated not just here in Salinas, but from whatever part of the world that (their) family came from.”

The students will be performing Saturday at the Amor Salinas Earth Day Festival in Sherwood Park, and again on Sunday at a Día del Niño festival in Chavez Park.

On July 6, the groups will travel to Stanford University to perform for Drum Corps International West, an organization established in 1971 to provide competition and performance opportunities to student musicians throughout North America.

“I think one of the biggest things we can do as educators, and this is top to bottom not just as performing arts instructors, is illustrate to students that they have a place in the world,” said Algazy. “And that place is following in the footsteps of traditions, but those also change to include them.”