As winter break approached for Park, the wind ensemble band had a major concert on Dec. 12. The concert featured a variety of music, including a piece by underrepresented composers. On the week preceding break, the band had a busy schedule, as this concert followed the Dec. 10 freshman concert.
According to band director Annaliese Heim, students should be confident in playing the roles they’ve rehearsed as a group, but their individual performances also matter to play at their full potential.
“We have rehearsal all together every day to look at things as a group, but there’s a lot of responsibility on them to know their parts and to feel confident in playing it,” Hiem said. “I’m proud of the way that they worked individually, came together as a group and felt successful.”
Sophomore Dayton Earle said rehearsing his high notes to where he could hit them smoothly was his main goal. According to him, regularly practicing would refine his ability by setting a feeling of self-assurance.
“The high notes of Elegy for Albinoni, I can improve on. I don’t think it’s hard to improve on, it’s just a little weakness,” Earle said. “I should focus on hitting these notes smoothly, and to do this I should practice more. That way I could perfect it and be confident in my ability to hit those types of notes.”
According to Heim, producing pieces that fit well with varying tempos is important to teach students across all aspects of skill development. Heim said she wants to cover significant messages through musical pieces like Salt March. She said it is good to highlight female composers of color who are regularly underrepresented.
“I usually try to program pieces that work well with different tempos, some faster, some slower, different time signatures, or different key signatures to push them in all areas of skill development,” Hiem said. “I also try to include pieces with important messages, like the Salt March piece we played and program works by female composers and composers of color, since they are generally underrepresented in the repertoire. It’s crucial to offer a wide variety of selections.”
According to sophomore Sam Przezdziecki, he worked on polishing every aspect of his pieces so that each part became more powerful and well-rounded. He said that rehearsal strategy would be better than focusing on a single area.
“I don’t have one specific thing I’m focusing on to improve right now, it’s more about working on everything as a whole,” Przezdziecki said. “From my tone and technique to my timing and expression, I want to keep refining all aspects of my playing so that each part becomes stronger, more balanced and cohesive in my overall performance.”
Earle said that working consistently hard results in a positive outcome when practicing his art.
“We’ve been practicing the music for a couple of months, practicing at home and school for this show and overall working hard will lead to a great outcome,” Earle said.
Heim said it’s important to involve community members to share feedback as frequently as possible. She said although a great number of the participants include friends and family, the band aims to captivate everyone.
“We perform at many conference events, like our Metro West Conference, where we prepare, attend and provide feedback,” Heim said. “It’s important to keep performing as much as possible and involve the greater community. While many audience members are family and friends, we aim to engage everyone, inviting them to create a bigger community for all the bands, from grades five through 12, helping connect all the students.”
