Big Sandy High School will be competing in the Spring Music Festival online next week after missing the event last year entirely due to the lockdowns. This year, the Montana High School Association (MHSA) decided that all of the state music festivals would be done digitally, due to concerns over the potential spread of the COVID virus. This decision was a bit of a disappointment for the students and staff who see the festival as a major component of performing arts at the high school level.
Music Teacher, TJ Bond, explained the significance of the festivals for high school performing arts: “During the spring every year, we have a big event and usually several schools from the district get together and perform the pieces that they’ve prepared for after Christmas. They’re a little bit more challenging than normal to push the students. During this event, they’re judged. That’s essentially what festival is. It’s a way that we can not only get a grade and ranking, but also see how the kids are doing, how the band and choir is doing, and how can we improve.”
Several schools in our area worked together during the school year with the plan to meet at Big Sandy High School to participate in the festival online together. This required that all of the participating schools follow the CDC and County Health Department guidelines. The goal was to replicate the festival experience as closely as possible. Mr. Bond explains: “This year, we are still having to submit our official Large Ensemble festival for MHSA’s sake. In order to to make sure we are complying with them, we are still submitting an official one. But to ensure that the students still get the same experience that they’ve had previous years, we are having some guest judges come in that want to help out, so that the students can get the same experience… It won’t be as high pressure. I still want to make sure the students get as close to the same experience as possible.”
The judges for the event include two locals: Marla Ray and Cherie Stiles. “Cherie Stiles will be helping out with some of the piano solos. Since Marla Ray teaches some of the, it will give them a new perspective.” TJ also recruited a judge with a long history with the Big Sandy Music program: Susan Walker, who taught music in our school for over 20 years. By adding the judges and the feedback they will provide, TJ hopes to add an element of the competitive atmosphere as well as give the students direct feedback from listeners, which is lacking in the purely digital version of the performance.
Unfortunately, most of the schools who had planned on participating in the local component of the music festival were forced to cancel. “It’s really just going to be us and one other school attending this time. We’ve had some schools that were able to at first, but have had to drop out either due to sports conflicts, COVID issues, or stuff like that.” The remaining school that will be participating in the local component of the festival is Northstar High School.
TJ explained the guidelines that are currently in place for performances during the pandemic: “In order to do it safely, we have to make sure that before and after they perform, students are using hand sanitizer and wearing masks when they are not playing an instrument or singing. As well as minimizing contact, the visiting school will have their own section in the auditorium where they can sit, whereas our students will have a different section so there is no mixing. Judges will have their own sectionals well, but that’s normal.”
TJ is optimistic about the school’s performance this year: “I think that we will do just fine. We had our pre-festival concert, and the kids did great with it. There is still room to polish, but that’s usually the point of any pre-festival situation. I’m really looking forward to seeing how we all do and getting the feedback. I’m also happy that the students are wanting to do this as well.”
Mr. Bond wanted to express his appreciation to the community and the administration for supporting and encouraging the music program in this endeavor: “I appreciate the community’s support for the arts. The fact that we’re able to do this because of the amount of support we’ve gotten from the administration, the community support, the parents. Not just having the other school out to play, the fact that everyone was on board… they were just as upset as I was that the official festival was digital only. The fact that there is so much support for us doing it is so fantastic. I don’t think we could repeat this sort of thing anywhere else.”
“We’re going to shine… I think it’ll be a chance for them to show off a little, which they don’t always get to in band and choir.”
The festival performances will be streamed on the Big Sandy Schools Facebook page on April 16th. The Northstar Band will be playing beginning at 10 AM followed by the choir which will be performing at 10:30. Big Sandy’s choir will perform at 11 AM and their band will follow at 11:30. The small ensembles will not be streamed. Anyone wishing to view the High School and Elementary School Concerts that were performed via Facebook Live last week can view them on the school’s page.
