Wow! What a great experience!
Last week several of our students got to experience the Music for All National Festival in Indianapolis. Our Percussion Ensemble, Saxophone Quartet, and three of our musicians in the Honor Band of America gave “command” performances, and made musical memories that will last a lifetime.
Led by Michael Holland, our Percussion Ensemble performed Sharpened Stick by Brett William Dietz, Sculpture in Wood by Rüdiger Pawassar, Irish Tune from County Derry by Percy Grainger (arranged by Chalon L. Ragsdale), and Firefly by Nathan Daughtrey. And as an added bonus, Nathan Daughtrey served as our group’s clinician and coached our students on his work as well as the rest of their program!
Our Saxophone Quartet, led by Jacob Campos, performed five moments from David Maslanka’s Mountain Roads and Nuages by Eugène Bozza. Many people in the audience said that our saxes were one of the highlights of the day at the Chamber Music Festival!
Three of our students auditioned for and were accepted to perform in the Honor Band of America, conducted by Col. Michael Colburn, the 27th Director of “The President’s Own” United States Marine band. They performed the Star Spangled Banner, For “The President’s Own” by John Williams, Flourishes and Meditations on a Renaissance Theme by Michael Gandolfi, The Engulfed Cathedral by Claude Debussy (transcribed by Merlin Patterson), and Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (transcribed by Maurice Ravel/arranged by Paul Lavender.) We were so proud to hear Katie Thornton, Webb Littleton, and Jason Frazier (who was 1st chair Alto Sax) perform these great works for wind band!
It was certainly a “positively life changing experience” for our students and we’d like to thank Music for All for providing it! (Not pictured: Katie Thornton)
