Before he even starts to perform his solo in front of the judge, he knows just how much even one small mistake will cost him. He knows how difficult his piece is, with no Bellaire student having played it successfully at this level in 20 years. He knows that he’s had only three weeks to practice.

And despite this, the only thing on his mind once he starts to play is enjoying the music. He closes his eyes and feels the melody, not worrying about anything else.

By the time he’s finished, Jose Torrez is fighting to hold back his smile.

Senior Torrez competed in the UIL state guitar competition in Austin, Texas on May 25th, claiming a medal in his ensemble performance and the prestigious Outstanding Performer award for his solo Choro No.1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos. The award has only been won by three Bellaire guitarists before him. The Outstanding Performance award is given to 1,000 competing Texas musicians per year, with only a handful of guitarists included in that number.

“I’ve been in competitions [and] I’ve won many [awards], but [this award] is [only given to] 1,000 [contestants], so it’s a different type of feeling.” Torrez said. “[My] confidence was not good, but I came with [the] mentality of, ‘I’m just gonna enjoy today.’ I’m gonna just do my best. It’s not like I’m [only] here to win a gold. I go for the vibes and [to] have fun.”

Despite the difficulty and pressure that comes with a state-level music competition, Torrez didn’t have the opportunity to prepare extensively, especially after qualifying at the UIL regional level competition in February.

“This song is a really difficult piece, which I didn’t practice much,” Torrez said. “[I had] only three weeks [to practice] because I played it for UIL regionals, and I never was able to play it again since it was AP season [and] I was not able to pick up the guitar as much anymore.”

Though Torrez was not able to practice between the regional and state competitions, junior classmate Ismael Moo Quevedo thought that his award was well-deserved.

“He’s a very good player,” Quevedo said. “He started [playing his freshman year which is] later than most people who are very experienced, [but] he plays like he’s very experienced. He has these very complicated solos, [and] I’ve seen a lot of people play the same piece, and they’re making faces [as] if it’s hard, but he does it so seriously. He feels [the music]. He doesn’t struggle with it.”

Torrez and Quevedo worked together as part of a quartet with two now graduated seniors Jermy Scarpetta and JuanDiego Cerda. Together they earned a one, the best score available at the competition, and earned a gold medal for the ensemble performance. After observing Torrez and the rest of the quartet practice, guitar teacher Edward Grigassy said he liked the way that he prepared.

“The way [Jose] prepares, especially with his quartets and his ensembles, [is] very thorough,” Grigassy said. “[He] always makes sure that there’s a lot of chances to rehearse. He’s willing to stay up late and keep practicing. Last year, he was also able to organize after-school practices. He knew that the ensemble piece [wasn’t ready], so he organized regular practices after school so that they were getting extra work [as a] team.”

In addition to his preparation skills, Grigassy also said that Torrez was good at working in a team with others and displaying leadership skills.

“He’s good at recognizing weakness and not pointing [them] out or humiliating them for any kind of weakness they have in any part of the song,” Grigassy said. “[He does not use] ‘you’ statements, like ‘you need to do this’, but rather, ‘how about’ statements. Or ‘what if we try’ statements, ‘we’ statements, or ‘I feel like this’. That’s an important aspect to his success with an ensemble.”

Now that Torrez has made significant accomplishments as a guitarist in competitions, his goal is to share his passion for music with others and use it to connect and teach people. He’s working towards this by helping his classmates practice their music or teaching private lessons to other guitar students, both inside and outside of school.

“Music relaxes. Music is therapy,” Torrez said. “It helps me even more to understand different people [and] understand their perspective in music or maybe on things that I never knew about.”

Torrez has learned through music how to connect with others and how to work with those who have disabilities. After seeing that one of the students he was teaching had coordination problems in her right hand, he worked patiently to adapt to the issue and help the student be successful.

“[The student’s mom] told me that she really loves how patient I am with her,” Torrez said. “I learned something new there.”

Torrez has only been playing guitar since his freshman year, but he’s been around music since he was a child, playing the accordion, piano, drums, trumpet and violin. Although he’s played a multitude of different instruments, guitar is still what stands out the most to him.

“[I love] the difficulty of it,” Torrez said. “You have to really work out to create music and beautiful tone and quality [with the guitar]. You can be sentimental; you can be loud; you can be you. You can do so much with the guitar, but you’ve just got to know how to do it.”