After the late summer departure of assistant band director Tyler Elvidge, the band program has been reduced to three bands with the goal of bringing students closer to one another.

“With Mr. Elvidge leaving, the reduction of four bands to now three is interesting,” senior Natalie Wang said. “It makes the bands less specialized in a sense and gets rid of the idea of being in a bad band. With all three of the bands meeting every day, it means that everyone has a chance to improve daily.”

The band staff is hoping to transform the loss of Elvidge into a positive experience for the students.

“After auditions we were looking at our numbers and saw that both the third and fourth bands were small,” assistant director of bands Cecily Yoakam said. “This meant that we would either have two smaller bands of 25 students or one larger band of about 50. With them combined all students have a peer they can work with or mentor to help them get better. With this increased number of students, it should create a much more positive and fun experience for the students because they will feel like more of a team in this larger setting.”

Some students, such as senior Justin Chen, believe that the change is a negative one because it means there are fewer players continuing into high school band.

“The biggest effect losing Mr. Elvidge will have on the band is musically,” Chen said. “Last year, Ms. Yoakam focused on the visual aspects of the band while Mr. Elvidge focused on the musical aspects. With him leaving, both Ms. Yoakam and Mr. Weaver have had to take on his role in addition to their own. The reduction of fourth band is actually a really sad thing for me because it means that fewer incoming students are continuing in band, and getting to experience how fun it can be.”

In previous years, the fourth band met only on A days, however, after the change all students will have a daily band class.

“I think the change is a positive one because it means that those who would have been in fourth band, get to experience and play in a higher level band which should help them improve a lot,” she said. “However, the change might be a negative for some because they might be put in a band that has a skill level too high or too low for them.”

Although the band staff is hoping to reintroduce the fourth band in later years, they are not currently looking for a new director.

“The band will look a little different this year, but I can’t wait to see how they grow with more people around them to help,” Yoakam said. “We do hope to add a fourth band back in the future, but we will always consider what is best for the students because they come first.”