The Big Sandy High School Music Program put on a concert showcasing the solo, duet, and ensemble performances in advance of regional music festivals in Havre. The festival is a competition in which all of the school music programs in the area compete to see who will go onto the state level competitions. Big Sandy will be heading to festival this coming Friday and Saturday, April 11th.
TJ Bond, who teaches music at Big Sandy Schools, explains that the concert is more of a recital. "We have a recital of all the small events that will be competing on the second day of festival. The students that get a high enough rating in those events will be able to compete at the state level."
The recital serves multiple purposes. It acts as a showcase for the community to see young, budding musicians playing pieces they have been preparing for months. It also acts as a practice run for students performing in front of an audience for the first time. TJ explains that these recitals, "help make playing for judges a bit easier. It's also the first time they get to do a performance in front of people who will be judging their performance. Even though people are there to support them, there's still that feeling and that pressure." He went on to explain that the pre-festival concert helps break the ice of first performing in front of an audience, easing the transition to performing before judges.
Not all of the students who played on Tuesday will be performing in the festival. For some, this was an opportunity to begin acclimating to performances in front of an audience. "We also have a few events this year that were performing that aren't going to festival, but this was an opportunity to perform in front of a group." Stage performance is an acquired skill that requires practice and preparation to hone the associated skills.
The recital itself only included the smaller acts. The festival over the weekend will also include the full band and choir. TJ explains the decision to limit the performance: "If we did our full band and full choir at the same time as all these events, the concert would have been about two and a half hours." The shortened recital performance is much easier for the community and audience to watch because it is so much shorter.
TJ discussed some of the stand out performances from Tuesday. He cited Hunter Moore, whose talent is a musician always shows through and whose stage presence has blossomed throughout his years with Big Sandy's music program. TJ pointed out that Hunter performs well regularly. This year's solo is fantastic and demonstrates how much hard work he has put into preparation.
TJ also singled out several additional up-and-coming students from the younger grades: "Tommy Sant on the trumpet, he's really good for how young he is. He's doing phenomenal. Colter Han on tenor saxophone, is also doing really good stuff for as young as he is. And then I'd actually have to say the trombone section in general. Heather Sherman is phenomenal and the younger trombone players are following suit."
Big Sandy has performed very well in festivals over the last few years. TJ is optimistic about our prospects for the coming contest. He is confident that our band and choir will receive very high marks. In addition, he expects quite a few of our small acts to move on to the state level.
Last weeks's recital was live streamed to the Big Sandy Schools Facebook page. It is still posted there and available for viewing.
