Band UIL held this week
Since late June to the week leading up to school, band and color guard have been busy with band camp rehearsals to prepare for their fall show, “A Common Thread.” In addition to preparing for their show, band camp aims to create a tight knit community among students through team building activities and socials.
March 31, 2023
Now that solo performances are over, the band is getting back together for UIL competitions with symphonic band performing Monday, the symphonic winds on Tuesday, and the Wind Ensemble on Wednesday.
“Each group will perform the pieces that we have been working on in class and then go into sightreading where they will learn and perform something they have never seen before,” assistant director of bands Cecily Yoakam said. ‘During the whole process, there is a group of judges that evaluate the performances and give us a score on how we did.”
The band performed a Pre-UIL concert before the break, where judges were brought in to evaluate the bands and give feedback before the final performance.
“The biggest takeaway for Pre-UIL is that all of our bands are incredible,” freshman Janis Jaison said. “But for my band we realized that individual skills should be improved for a better ensemble, and we are applying that and getting much better as UIL is approaching.”
The goal for each band is to get a sweepstakes which means that they received all ones on their performance evaluations.
“The most beneficial part about UIL is getting to challenge ourselves,” senior Natalie Wang said. “Because this is our biggest concert of the year, we always play the most fun and challenging music all year, which means that we all have to work hard to make sure that we know our individual parts.
The concert, however, is not just a chance to gauge the ability of a band, but to also see how much each group and player has improved since their last UIL performance.
“The biggest benefit for participating in UIL is to really figure out how well of a band we are and how each one of us improves,” Jaison said. “My goal is that we perform really well and that everyone in the band can be proud no matter what the outcome is.”
While Yoakam does still value the score, she believes that the most important part is just for students to perform their best.
“My personal goal for the concert is for us to have an amazing run of our selections,” Yoakam said. “I always just want to see you all as students grow and have the best performance you can.”
