HILLSBOROUGH: HHS ensemble concert a tune-up for national festival

By Eileen Oldfield, Staff Writer
   For the Hillsborough High School Wind Ensemble, the Rutgers Wind Ensemble Concert is a performance and practice.
   ”It’s preparation for our trip to the National Concert Band Festival in Indianapolis,” junior Alex Bloch said. “It’s basically practice to prepare. We’ve been working extra hard, and having extra practices to prepare.”
   ”Rutgers compared to Indianapolis is a practice concert,” Val Kuntz, also a junior, said. “It’s a good warm-up.”
   The Hillsborough High School Wind Ensemble will perform Friday at the Nicholas Music Center in the Mason Gross Performing Arts Center at 85 George Street, New Brunswick. The concert begins at 8 p.m., and does not require tickets.
   The ensemble submitted an audition tape to qualify for the Wind Ensemble concert, which the students recorded during three after-school sessions earlier in the school year. Roxbury High School Band Director Todd Nichols directed the recording sessions and provided the recording equipment.
   ”It was pretty funny,” Alex said. “We had everyone switched around. We had the tuba in the front row to get the best sound.”
   The wind ensemble will perform three pieces at the Rutgers event, and at the National Concert Band Festival: Tielman Susato’s “LE Dansyrye,” David Gilligan’s “Be Thou My Vision,” and Movement Three (“Apollo Unleashed”) of Frank Ticheli’s Second Symphony.
   In addition to practicing during class, the ensemble has three-hour practices twice a month to prepare for both events.
   ”It certainly teaches you that hard work pays off,” Alex said. “… The band as a whole is just very close. The program here is unlike any other.”
   The Rutgers concert will be the ensemble’s first time performing its program, and, for several students, the only time their parents will hear the pieces.
   ”It’s the first time we’re performing for an audience, so it’s exciting for us,” Alex said. “For some of our parents, it’s the only time they’ll hear it because some are not going to Indianapolis. It’s an expensive trip.”