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<\/p>\nFRESNO, Calif. \u2013 For the first time, a student ensemble from Fresno State will perform at one of the world\u2019s largest clarinet conferences this summer.<\/p>\n
The student-led clarinet quartet \u201cInvicta\u201d was recently selected to perform at \u201cClarinetFest 2026\u201d in Incheon, South Korea. The international event draws educators, students, and other musicians from nearly 50 countries.<\/p>\n
The local group is made up of Fresno State students Gavyn Tapp, Raul Roldan, Devin Calderon, and Jason Hilario.<\/p>\n
Tapp still recalls the moment he learned the quartet had been accepted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like 11 p.m. and I was about to go to bed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Then a phone call came in from Raul Roldan, one of his closest friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember Raul calling me and saying, \u2018Oh my god, we got in, we got in!\u201d Tapp said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until the next morning I was like, \u2018Oh my gosh, like, we got in.\u201d<\/p>\n
They had just been selected to perform on an international stage this summer and were one of only five U.S. ensembles to do so.<\/p>\n
The four musicians officially formed Invicta after attending last year\u2019s ClarinestFest in Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cInvicta basically means invincible and we wanted something that really showed the valley pride and what\u2019s possible in the Central Valley,\u201d Roldan said. \u201cIt shows how relentless we are and how committed we are to providing music for the Central Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n
The friends originally met one another in high school at a statewide music conference and have remained close friends ever since.<\/p>\n
Now they perform together, playing classical, contemporary, Latin and jazz pieces.<\/p>\n
\u201cClarinet is not a very commercially viable instrument,\u201d Calderon said. \u201cPeople like the saxophone, the guitar. The hardest part for us is not letting the fact that we play clarinet stop us from connecting to the general public with the music that we make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starting from scratch<\/p>\n
Some schools have established clarinet quartet groups. But Fresno State didn\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n
After attending last year\u2019s conference in Texas, the group decided they would start their own. Amelia Smith, their clarinet professor, said that drive is what has motivated them to audition to attend as performers this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018Dr Smith, we’re really excited. We’re going to start a quartet, and we’re going to apply for next year’s [conference]\u2019,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe hadn’t even left that conference yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith said the quartet has wowed her, though she isn\u2019t surprised that they\u2019ve come this far already.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have taken all of this upon themselves,\u201d Smith said. \u201cSo it’s kind of a really huge action of, you know, being proactive and really, really being passionate about achieving this goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gavyn Tapp, Jason Hilario, Devin Calderon and Raul Roldan are musicians at the Fresno State School of Music.<\/p>\n
“The olympics of the clarinet”<\/p>\n
This July, Invicta will make its international debut during the conference. This year will mark only the second time that ClarinetFest has been held in Asia since 2000.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we’re expecting about 1500 people, and most of them are clarinet players, clarinet enthusiasts, students, teachers from nearly 50 different countries,\u201d Wonkak Kim, the artistic director, said. \u201cSo it’s sort of like the Olympics of the clarinet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim said Invicta was selected from more than 200 student groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m thrilled to see this kind of student-driven initiative,\u201d Kim said. \u201cOf course, it proves also great mentorship of the teachers and professors. So I’m very happy to hear these exciting things happening at Fresno State.\u201d<\/p>\n
The conference will also include competitions, masterclasses, and an exhibit hall showcasing new clarinets and mouthpieces for attendees to try out.<\/p>\n
The heart of the group<\/p>\n
For these student musicians, the experience and journey represent more than just a performance opportunity.<\/p>\n
Jason Hilario said the group\u2019s bond is the key to their success.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to have the right people in order for something like this to happen,\u201d Hilario said. \u201cHaving your late evening rehearsals after a long day and after a long day of school, I still wanted to show up. I wanted to contribute to the magic that we make.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Devin Calderon, the trip also marks another major milestone. He is currently composing a Korean-inspired piece that Invicta plans to perform at the festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just feels like, you know, a bunch of opportunities I never thought would, you know, I’d be able to achieve,\u201d Calderon said.<\/p>\n
Now that school is out for the summer, the quartet is entering crunch time as the four friends prepare for their international debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. \u2013 For the first time, a student ensemble from Fresno State will perform at one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[139621,512,139622,139623,139624,139625,139626,112,114,113,33897,64926,50902],"class_list":["post-338677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-amelia-smith","tag-central-valley","tag-clarinet","tag-clarinet-quartet","tag-clarinetfest","tag-clarinetfest2025","tag-clarinetfest2026","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-kvpr","tag-samantha-rangel","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}