The Reason for Region
Sloane Baecker (7)
People see the band’s concerts and see us in class, but some of the band kids participate in things that have members coming from other campuses. These kids are given more advanced music, put in a bigger band, and only time outside of normal school hours and days to practice. This is what makes up NISD’s regional band. There are 3 middle school NISD bands put together which include the intermediate, the advanced, and the symphonic bands.
The directors at each campus pick some students from their advanced bands that they think will be able to play the more advanced music and participate in regional. The auditions are on two different days in November, you have to play etudes and scales that have been prepared since August. The audition is separated by instrument and by your level: third (intermediate) or second (advanced) year players. The students that ranked the highest in the advanced auditions made the advanced band, the students who ranked slightly lower made the symphonic band. The students that ranked the highest in the intermediate auditions made the intermediate band.
JMS submitted 13 students and had 2 make it in! One student, 8th grader Justin Buckalew, an advanced tuba player, made it into the symphonic band. In addition, an intermediate euphonium player, 7th grader Sloane Baecker, made the intermediate band. The participants, were then given music to play and perfect on their own in two months. As the concert approaches, throughout two days the bands fit in 11 solid hours of practicing for their concerts.
“The experience was insane! I’m very proud of myself for getting in, and happy I got to be there!” exclaimed Sloane .
“I was very nervous, and when I sat back down my hands were shaking very violently.” 8th grader, Colt Fern responded. He was an advanced trumpet player who auditioned, “There were a lot of people, like 63 I think.” he said. Some sections are really competitive and have more than 50 students audition.
There were quite a few people in band who advanced on their instrument on their own time, which is how they prepared for region and advanced to that skill level. “I very much enjoyed being there, and want to keep auditioning,” Sloane responded while beaming. There were about 600 students auditioned and 202 made it into one of the three bands. Sloane seemed to think those long hours practicing on the weekends, in the mornings, and in class for the addition alone were well worth it. In the past two years, our campus has doubled their participates in region, so our school has a good chance of doing so again next year.