Shadow Ridge’s amazing Advanced Band will be having a prefestival concert on February 20th at 6:00p.m. in the Mustang Theater. The concert will end roughly at about 7:30. The concert will feature three bands, one from Saville Middle school, one from Lied Middle School, and then Shadow’s Advanced Band.
The director, Mr. Hartley, started handing out music for the prefestival concert on January 8th so that they would be as prepared as possible. Shadow’s band has two concerts in the spring, one is the prefestival on Thursday, February 20th, and then they will have a later one, their Spring Concert, on Tuesday, May 13th. There are definitely some noticeable differences between the two concerts, specifically with the outcomes of each concert.
“Prefestival is approached as more of a formal and professional concert, whereas the Spring Concert will be a bit more laid back and celebratory,” Hartley explains.
During the concert, the bands will play 3 pieces each, performing them in front of a public audience as well as guest judges, who will be leaving comments and assessments while each group performs. The intended purpose of the prefestival concert is to assist all of the Advanced bands in preparing for the CCSD district Advanced Band Festival.
Only the Advanced Band class and select percussionists will be performing in the prefestival. While the spring concert is more of a fun celebration of music, the prefestival is a bit more about preparation and taking care of business. The prefestival concert is special for different reasons to both the director and the students.
“It is a preparation concert for our District Festival (it is like the EOC exams for music, to see what we are teaching our students and how effective we are),” Hartley says.
Hartley loves all of the songs, but his favorite one in the concert is “In the Forest of the King.” Shadow Ridge’s band has done these concerts multiple times in years past.
Hartley has been director at Shadow Ridge for 3 years now and continues to love it. During the concert there will be more than ten different instruments playing, which include the Flute, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Contrabass Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax, Bassoon, Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Tuba, and Percussion.
One of the band students, sophomore Justin Anacleto, is looking forward to the upcoming concert.
“I’m super excited for the concert and all of the fun we will have playing in it,” Anacleto comments.
