With seniors getting ready to leave, and 8th graders getting ready to come in, band students are preparing for the upcoming marching season and leadership opportunities available with a new school year on the horizon.

“Band placement auditions will take place asynchronously. Students will record and submit their audition virtually,” associate director of band Tyler Elvidge said. “Students will record two etudes for their audition. A technical etude and a lyrical etude. Some recommended ways to prepare for these or any audition include weekly private lessons, practice slowly and methodically, get assistance and feedback from band directors, or practice with an older student or section leader.”

For junior Aravind Dharmalingam, the audition required time and practice to become confident.

“I prepared by making sure I knew what a leader was and what I was signing up for because the Band Leadership Team isn’t a simple thing to do,” Dharmalingam said. “For the speech, I practiced countless times, making sure I was as articulate as possible and from there, everything just fell into place.I tried out for the big three, Visual Captain, Section Leader, and Drum Major. I had two close friends, Shelby Pybus and Jia Kanar, both audition and make drum major and they told me I should try out. I really wanted to be like them, kind, caring, and helpful, so I decided to try out.”

Possibly becoming a member of the Band Leadership Team is an opportunity to be more outgoing for sophomore Rachel Chang.

“I’m preparing by just practicing the music. The music isn’t hard and it’s mainly just reviewing and practicing things we already know,” Chang said. “My goals for the Band Leadership Team audition was to step out of my comfort zone and to do my best despite the outcome. Now that I’ll be section leader next year, my goal is pretty much the same which is to push myself to work hard and do my best, and to make the band a welcoming and safe place for everyone.”

The Band Leadership Team allows the students to fully experience band by helping with marching, music, and uniforms.

“The leadership team serves as a conduit between the band directors and the rest of the band program,” Elvidge said. “Whether that is section leaders ensuring that their section can play the music, visual captains helping students understand the mechanics of marching or one of the VP’s on the executive team coordinating logistics so that the band can operate smoothly they are all important roles.”

In order to create better relationships between students, the band is adding another position on the BLT, allowing students to become more connected.

“One of our goals for the BLT is to build stronger peer-to-peer relationships,” Elvidge said. “This year we are adding a new position of squad leader to the leadership team. The band will be broken up into small mixed instrument groups, or squads with a leader assigned to each squad. This will allow the band to get to know each other much better across both grade level and instrument sections. This past year didn’t allow us to have a Summer band camp or many other meaningful peer relationships building opportunities so these squads will help us achieve that goal more so than ever.”