On Thursday, November 5th, I went to go see the musical Into the Woods put on by the Shawnee Mission Northwest theatre department. Into the Woods is a play about several characters from different fairy tales that interact with each other throughout the plot. Some of the characters include: Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack(from Jack and the Beanstalk), the witch, and the baker and his wife(these two characters do not actually belong to a fairy tale, but have a major role in the plot). There are many other characters from different fairy tales as well, but these are some of the characters that I found most important. The plot mainly revolves around the baker and his wife. There was a curse bestowed on the baker’s family by their neighbor,
The students in band all have one thing in common: they have a passion for music. In fact, that passion is so great that they will go to the extreme of wearing big uniforms and shakos, yes the hats have an actual name, just so they can march around the football field making shapes and straight lines while playing music that they have worked so hard to memorize all summer instead of going out and doing normal teenage things that normal teenagers do. Doing this helps the young teens to open up their perception of life and realize that there is more out there than just doing stupid things and getting themselves in trouble. High school band consists of a bunch of good kids having fun and doing what they love the most. Band members are also some of the smartest kids in their
I have always been a particularly musical person. When I was younger, I wanted to become a singer when I grew up, but upon joining the choir in elementary I realized I did not have the talent for singing that I thought I had. Continually singing off key and never sounding as good as my peers did, I decided to confine myself to singing at home where only my family could hear me. Despite this revelation that I was, in fact, a terrible singer, I still wanted to participate in some type of musical performance and decided to join the band in middle school. After trying out various different instruments, I settled on the flute and quickly fell in love.
National Honor society was established to recognize outstanding high school students. National Honor society recognizes students who have demonstrated excellence in the areas of academic success, leadership, character and service. I should be in National Honor Society because I think I represent a lot of the qualities needed to be in this organization.
Marching band; copious amounts of people scoff at the sound of those words. I often hear students commenting on how easy marching band is, how we don’t train like the football players do. At Anderson High School, that’s not the case, the marching band trains for just as long. As a band of over 125 individuals, it takes determination, pride, and confidence to achieve the goals we have set forth to accomplish. As a leader of the saxophone section, I know what it’s like to face failure, to overcome and turn it into success and to march on with confidence. I know exactly how to motivate my underclassmen when they tell me “I can’t do this anymore.” Over the last four years, I have succeeded in leading my group of 13 saxophone players to two State
The band that I willingly devote every spare minute of my free time to has come so far, and I have had the honor of experiencing extreme milestones in the path of success for this school. In my first year, we traveled to Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indianapolis for the first time in Round Rock Dragon Band history, and placed fourth out of nearly ninety bands. The following year, we were invited to march in the 2015 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, which stretched the end of our marching season from the typical October to the beginning of January. This past year we traveled to Indianapolis again and performed a show that, although it placed seventh in finals, emotionally moved every soul in our program deeply.
A big, yellow Calhoun County School bus pulled up at the back of Ashville High School, and a swarm of students in black bibbers and band shoes began to file off. They scrambled around searching for the trailer filled with all of their instruments, and once they retrieved their instruments, the parking lot came alive with music and a slur of conversations. I was one of twelve girls stowed away in the back of the bus. We were applying our performance make-up, touching up our hair, and making sure our uniforms were tied tight enough to stay in place as we danced around the football field later that night. Once we finished our pregame preparations, we retrieved our flags and props and joined the rest of the band to get ready to march into the
This year’s West Bay Community Band concert on December 17th was an excellent concert based on the theme of Christmas music. The performance took place at Mills High School in their own theater and had the new staging previously used in their Winter Concert. The Band, Saxtet, Euphonium Quintet, and the Flute Trio had some individuals with the Holiday spirit. The band seemed pretty relaxed and were at ease when playing their selections regarding A Christmas Festival. Winter Wonderland was a played at a Moderato tempo with the Flutes and Clarinets being the most active players in this song. Two 16th century Carols was played at an Andante-Moderato Tempo that emphasized the whole band at different parts of the song. Good Swing Wenceslas was played at a
Concert band has been a long rode for me throughout the seven years I’ve been involved in it. Fifth grade was when I started playing an instrument. The battle begins here because I wanted to play the flute, but my mom forced me to play the alto saxophone. The first three years of band is the time I struggled the most. I didn’t want to be in band and everytime I asked my mom to quit she would say no. Her reason why was because she was paying for it every month, I couldn’t quit until the instrument was fully paid off. Since
Out of all the things I would do in high school, nothing would impact me more than joining the North Rangers Marching Band. It would give me more skills than any other aspect of my life that would prepare me for a future and allow me to evolve from a shy child to an adult with skills that prepared me for my future. I went into high school as a shy kid, with no true direction, at least until I discovered my schools marching band. Although coming in two years behind most of me peers, I knew that this was where I was meant to be, and with that, my mind was set and I was determined. Throughout the next two years, I would face countless difficulties with this that felt at times like tests of my willpower and what this band meant to me, but luckily I would push through, and in the end, would be left with a stronger person. As I look
The Lovell High School Concert Band had an amazing concert on the 30th of November. The songs included Celebration and Tribute, Sleigh Ride, Spirit of the Highlands, with a bonus of the combined band on Jinge, Jinge, Jingle. While all the songs were good, they were not spectacular. One that stands out to me is Celebration and Tribute.
One-hundred and fifty students stared out at the audience, heaving after singing their final note at the All-State Honor Choir Conference. Among those kids was Janie Hawkins, a five-foot-two, singing powerhouse. All state choir is focused on learning music and perfecting skills, so when Janie got in, she received music at home before the “conference.” She and other students tried out in September, received the music and then stayed in Eugene, Oregon. After two days of practicing for the performance with her choir peers, Janie and the choir finally did the performance and had to say goodbye to their new-found friends at the Eugene Hult Center. Weeks of hard practice were put to good work on that Saturday night.
Transitioning from middle school band to high school band was a major jump because of all the time involved, but it was such a great transition. Since my freshman year I have always done all I can to be my absolute best in this program. I never slacked off on practice unless I had another event I had to attend. Every summer we have band camp that consists of 8 hours a day working our hardest to get the season started. Once school starts the color guard had three hour practices three times a week, last year it was only two, and now we only have practice one day a week because of the effort we all put in at band camp this year. We perform at almost every home football game during halftime and then play pep tunes in the stands. On Saturdays we
Music has always been a part of my life. In definition, it is “vocal or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.” Ever since I was a young child, I have loved music. The strong, steady beats, the entrancing melodies, and the lyrics that vary between heartwarming and heart-wrenching have always had an unexplainable effect on my life. Music seems to have the ability to change certain aspects of my world. Even with my moods, whether it is sad or mad, music will help me get through it. It has absolutely been an enormous part of my life and who I am. Thus, this is to say that I have musical talent. I am in a high school marching band, where I play any piano-like instrument. My viewpoint with music has come to a simple conclusion, without it, I would not know who I am or what to do with my life.
Prior to this, I have never attended a classical concert. I actually had no clue as to what to expect because I could not find a review for UH concerts. The Jazz Orchestra performed in the Moores Opera House on a stage setting similar to that of my middle school band. The band instruments were tiered on the risers while the other performers were simply beside the risers. There were a few noticeable differences such as, the microphones set in the center for soloists, and a marker hanging from above to mark the center of the stage.