Wind Ensemble goes out with a bang

It’s coming closer and closer to the end of the year, which means the music department has concerts galore in the next two weeks. The final Wind Ensemble concert was last night, Sunday is the Masterworks Choral concert, next Tuesday is Chamber Orchestra, and next Wednesday is Jazz on the Green.

All of those are looking to be amazing performances, but I’m going to do a plug for the concert that it’s too late to see. I’m actually a member of the Wind Ensemble, but that has nothing to do with how amazed I was at the concert last night. The pieces we played made the concert…just…amazing. There’s not really any other way to put it.

The two big pieces, “Kingfishers Catch Fire” by Mackey and “Give Us This Day” by David Maslanka, are definitely worth looking up on YouTube. I wish I could send out a recording of us playing it. The combination of technique and emotion those pieces require is a daunting task, but our director Tim Shade pulled it out of the least of us.

I haven’t put nearly as much time into music here than in high school, but I think there’s beauty in the fact that our band, unlike many college bands, is not made up entirely of music majors or minors. You can get a scholarship and play in band or participate in any music group here by simply auditioning. We’ve got people from all sorts of departments playing, as well as a few community members who want to have an outlet for musical talent that Shade is happy to provide.

I would recommend to all high school instrumentalists out there to audition for a scholarship and continue playing. It’s well worth it.