On Monday, Feb. 29, both the concert and symphonic bands played in their yearly pre-assessment concert. After many practices after school, both bands performed the few pieces they’ve been learning for this concert. Each band played three different songs, including “Shadow Rituals”, “English Folk Song Suite” and “Festivo”. “English Folk Song Suite” was played symphonic band performance and contained three different songs all combined into one.

Freshman Jack Fleming plays the alto saxophone in symphonic band.

“We’re playing three pieces, and one of them has three different marches in it, so it’s cool because it’s three songs [in] one piece,” Fleming said.

Junior Lucy Moss plays the alto-saxophone in symphonic band as well, and has a different role than others in one of the songs.

“I have a little solo in one of the pieces we’re playing, so that’s a little stress, but other than that we sound pretty good,” Moss said.

The pre-assessment concert was a band performance of prepared selections that will be played at the District V Concert Performance. There, both bands will be judged on their performance and will be given feedback to band directors and students on how they did. In the past, the school has received good ratings from the judges.

Band students arrived one hour prior to showtime. Fleming was very comfortable before the performance after practicing on stage and after school many times.

“I feel wonderful. We’ve been practicing long hours after school. I feel like we are definitely ready for this concert,” Fleming said

Each band played three songs, and many of the band students enjoyed the selections for this year’s assessment.

“I like Shadow Rituals better than a couple pieces we’ve done in the past just because it’s really fast and loud and powerful,” Moss said.

Senior Noah Heie plays percussion in symphonic band and enjoys the piece as well.

“Shadow Rituals is actually really fun, I really enjoy that piece,” Heie said.

The high school concert assessment will take place on Friday, March 11 at Broadway High School along with many other schools in the district.

“Usually we do really good at these assignments, so this was just prepping for that,” Moss said.

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Christa Cole

Freshman Sam Schaeffer warms up on a drumming pad before the pre-assessment concert. “Be intentional and practice so that you don’t get into Percussion 1 and you get into Percussion 2 because that’s where the real pros are at,” Schaeffer said.