By Eileen Oldfield Staff Writer
HILLSBOROUGH — Hillsborough High School’s Wind Ensemble will be among a select group of high school musical groups in March, when the 42-student ensemble performs as one of 15 groups in the Bands of America National Concert Band Festival.
Students have launched fundraising plans to attend the three-day festival, set for March 19-21 in Indianapolis, where their performance will be critiqued by a group of educators. The ensemble members will also attend master-level music classes with members of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and a private clinic with one of the nation’s top music educators.
According to the festival organizers, bands selected for the festival are among the nation’s best.
”It’s such a huge honor,” Kevin Mackiw, a senior and president of the high school’s Band Council, said. “We worked really hard, and we had all our hard work pay off.”
Bands performing in the festival must prepare two audition pieces, and send recordings of the pieces to the festival organizers. The audition deadline is in June, with the bands being announced during September.
The Wind Ensemble began practicing its audition pieces soon after the 2007-2008 school year started, and had three three-hour recording sessions to record the two songs. Since the festival guidelines prohibit bands from splicing audition recordings together, the Wind Ensemble needed two almost flawless tracks to submit.
”In total, you want everything perfect,” Andrew Ricketts, a senior, said.
”If we messed up in the end, we had to start all over again,” Kevin said.
Though preparing festival necessitates hours upon hours of practice, the group must first pick its repertoire for the event. The ensemble submitted list of 12 musical selections it can potentially perform, and would narrow down the search to three pieces for the concert program. Each band in the festival must have a unique song selection meaning bands can’t perform the same pieceswith the bands that request pieces first getting to play those pieces at the event.
Since the festival isn’t a competitive event and the performances won’t be ranked though the ensemble’s performance will be critiqued it allows ensembles to challenge themselves with more complicated music.
Kevin and Andrew said the festival has the ensemble attempting more challenging music, and experimenting with new instrumentation including its first string bass player.
Though working toward a goal is familiar to the students, the festival upped the ante.
”We always give ourselves something to work for,” Andrew said. “But this is taking on our dream pieces.”
Preparing for the trip isn’t limited to practicing, however. With an approximately $25,000 total cost for student expenses, and an approximately $8,000 cost for buses, the Hillsborough Band Parents’ Association planned several fundraisers to help finance the trip.
Band Parents Association President Linda Mackiw said the association had several fundraisers planned. They include having the kids ask for donations outside local businesses Oct. 5 and Oct. 15, an Adopt-a-Student/Adopt-a-Dress drive that allows residents to make a donation for dresses for the girls in the ensemble, a Barnes and Noble book fair in December, and a benefit concert in February.
Residents interested in donating for the trip may send checks, made out to the Hillsborough Band Parents Association, to Julia Haran, at Hillsborough High School.
For more information on the fundraisers, e-mail Linda Mackiw at [email protected].
Though getting to Indianapolis will take hours of work, it hasn’t diminished the students’ excitement or anticipation.
”It’s going to be a great trip for everyone,” Kevin said. “It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime.”
For more information, visit the festival’s Web site, /www.musicforall.org/Programs/MFANF/ncbf.aspx
