The San Joaquin County Office of Education recently announced its Nelson Zane Music Awards given to those who have participated in the High School Honor Concerts during all four years.

Among the 2024 Nelson Zane recipients were two from Manteca Unified (Selvin Curin of East Union High in Honor Band and Ranaya Singh of Weston Ranch High in Honor Choir) and one from Ripon Unified (Valente Hernandez of Ripon High in Orchestra).

The award is in honor of Nelson Zane, who passed away in February 2011.

His family started the Nelson Zane Memorial Scholarship award honoring those four-year music honor students – only one will be awarded with the $500 scholarship.

On Saturday, the SJCOE Middle School Honors Concert will take place at 7 p.m. at Delta College.

Included will be 249 students (88 choir, 74 band, and 87 orchestra) from 32 schools in nine districts throughout the county.

Guest conductors will be Vu Nguyen (band) of the University of the Pacific, Katherine Carbajal (choir) of Escalon High, and Luis Talamantes (orchestra) of Cesar Chavez High.

More than 320 students auditioned for this event organized by the SJCOE Visual and Performing Arts, which sponsors the Middle School Honors Concert along with the Delta College Music Department and the SJC Music Educators’ Association.

For more information, log on to www.sjhonors.org.