The Yorktown
High School Wind Ensemble, 44 of the most talented participants in the high school music program, were honored with an award for Excellence at a recent festival of more than 600 student musicians from throughout the nation. The three day Heritage Festival in Boston was more than an opportunity for an evaluation of intonation, balance, technical ability and musicianship, it was an opportunity for out students to get to know the historic city.
For the competition, the ensemble played the challenging “Armenian Dances” by Alfred Reed, and “Sleep” by Eric Whitacre, and were given a silver award for excellence.
Distinguished “Adjudicators” (judges), many of them from renowned conservatories and college music programs, evaluate the young musicians, and serve as mentors who work with all of the groups to enhance their performance, whatever their level of proficiency. “It was great,” Wind Ensemble Vice President Martin Mata said, “to be able to get insights from professional musicians, and to be given so much of their time.” Band Director Emily Kluga hastened to point out that working with professional musicians is in fact something which the group already experienced, this past November, when the U.S. Air Force Band’s “Colonial Brass Quintet” spent a full day and evening with the Yorktown High School band.
Michelle DeCurtis, Wind Ensemble Secretary, felt that the experience at the festival served to “bring us together not just as musicians, but as friends.” “We learned a lot,” she said, “about each other, about how we play, and how we can improve.” The Ensemble’s Treasurer, Mike Levin, echoed many of Michelle’s points, stressing how the group came away with a variety of insights*even on such things as tuning their instruments.
All of the YHS participants felt that the experience was not only a learning opportunity, but a testament to what the group has already achieved. “We came back from Boston not just with concrete goals for improving our performance, but feeling validated as a band,” said Ensemble member Samantha Russell. “When we play at high school concerts and events,” she continued, “our parents always say we’ve done well. But hearing the same thing from professional musicians is really exciting.”
Mark Hellerman, another Ensemble member as well as the band’s webmaster, said he was “very impressed with the other bands,” and encouraged everyone to look at pictures from the event which he has posted on the band’s website yhsbands.com. The website, as Mark describes it, started as mostly an internal medium of communication (with lesson schedules and such things), but now has sound clips, pictures, notices of events, and various other items that might be of interest to the community as a whole.
The students’ recent trip left them some time to visit area attractions like Faneuil Hall, Boston Harbor and The U.S.S. Constitution, and the group also enjoyed seeing a performance of “Blue Man Group” and taking a side-trip to Salem, Massachusetts.
Ms. Kluga, the Band Director, complimented the members of the Ensemble on their seriousness as musicians and their maturity as young adults. “I was extremely impressed with how these students handled themselves on the trip,” she said. “They are stellar representatives of Yorktown High School.”
