Commentary – SDA Band Festivals

El Camino

There was an unusual amount of pressure leading up to SDA’s Wind Ensemble I performance at the El Camino Band festival — an event where high schools from around Southern California play for judges and receive ratings — on March 10.

For one thing, SDA’s Wind Ensemble II earned a “superior,” the highest possible rating, minutes before our warm up and we quickly felt the need to do that well, if not better.

The other was personal. For many of us seniors, this was going to be our sixth and final year playing at the festival: warming up, trying to avoid eye contact with the judges seated at dimly lit desks, playing our best, and cluelessly meandering into sight reading, where we would play a piece none of us had seen before.

After we quickly assembled our instruments, we entered the warm up room. It was an unusual warm up. There was lots of chatter during our few minutes to spot check, and few seemed focused.

Finally, we filed onto stage, sat down, raised our stands (which perfectly precluded us from seeing our audience), and anticipated a downbeat.

When it came, the restlessness we held during warm up dissipated. We focused.

After the first piece, music teacher Jeremy Wuertz fist pumped and mouthed “yes!” We knew we did well–and that we had to maintain our level of focus for the rest of the performance.

Following a couple of excruciatingly slow minutes, the judges told us to proceed to our second piece. It felt like a blur. At times, I didn’t know which keys my fingers were pressing; I just trusted my muscle memory and hoped it was right. Trusting our practice worked for me. It worked for everyone.

After our successful performance (where, for once, a percussionist didn’t drop the cymbals during the most beautiful moment of the program), we waited to sight read.

In sight reading, there is only one judge. He greeted us, and we were each handed a folder. We were eventually allowed to open it and take out a piece, which none of us had seen before. We had four minutes to scan our score, mull over difficult passages, sing through sections as an ensemble and clap out tricky rhythms. Usually, we take up all four minutes. This time we didn’t.

Wuertz told the judge we were ready about two minutes in, and off we went.

After we finished it, the judge started spilling complements, and he didn’t work on the piece with us as they usually do. This was clearly a good sign.

Then, we left the room, put our instruments away and raced out in the rain to view our rating. We not only did as well as Wind Ensemble II, we did better. Yes, we got a superior. But, we were awarded the rating unanimously.

A mystery emerged, though, once we got back to SDA the next day. Nobody knew our sight reading rating for sure, despite us being certain we earned a superior. It turns out the festival lost the paper giving us our score.

Eventually, we received another copy, and we had–as expected–gotten another superior.

Winds and Composer Festival

There’s a reason the word “composer” is in the title: a composer shows up, giving the ensembles a rare opportunity to understand how each work is meant to be played beyond what’s indicated on our scores.

After a solid performance at El Camino, we had two weeks of work to do. We refined one of the pieces from El Camino, and learned a new one. It had to be in good shape because its composer was going to be in the audience, listening to us and then doing a workshop with the ensemble.

This auditorium, at San Marcos High School, was acoustically friendly, so we quickly acclimated and topped our El Camino performance.

Then came the moment we all anticipated. Guest composer Brian Balmages walked on stage.

He was appreciative of our work, but he clearly wanted us to build on it and further ourselves as an ensemble. We all learned a lot.

At the end of the workshop, he gave us an opportunity to ask him questions. The last one sparked a particularly special moment. One student asked him about the extent to which reading music can hinder one’s musicianship.

To answer the question, Balmages asked us to call out about random notes. He then went to the piano and used that scheme and improvised for about 5 minutes as he walked us through his typical composing process.

Everyone seemed floored. And there’s no doubt more chatter will fill the band room for days to come about the unique experience.