Band Takes on Holiday Theme at Winter Concert

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  • Band Director Mr. Jack Green says a few words before the concert.

  • Marc Mathieu ’20 plays his french horn with the horn choir.

  • Anthony Fiveash ’20 stands after the performance.

  • Hart Black ’21 plays the trombone.

  • Brianna Brown ’20 plays the clarinet.

  • Pilar Padilla ’20 smiles and talks to a friend before they perform.

  • Lyle Moss ’20 plays the french horn with the horn choir.

  • Choir member Lindsey Adams ’19 wears a festive hat and sings with the band.

  • Band Director Mr. Jack Green directs both band and choir in the final performance of the night.

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The Westwood Band played at their annual Winter Concert on Dec. 13 at the Round Rock ISD Performing Arts Center (PAC). The bands played different pieces selected by head band director, Mr. Jack Green, and assistant directors, Mr. Thomas Turpin and Mrs. Brittany Dacy.

The evening started off with the Concert Band playing Dashing Through The Snow, a variation of the classic Jingle Bells, arranged by Richard L. Saucedo. The students continued with their performance and played a piece called Ammerland by Jacob de Haan. The band’s final piece was A Fantasy of Carols by Jay Bocook, which featured a mixture of different Christmas songs like O Come, All Ye Faithful and O Come, O Come Emmanuel.

“I really love playing in Christmas concerts,” Alexa Torres ‘19 said. “It’s such a huge change from marching band because there are way less rehearsals, but playing songs like this just make me really happy and in the spirit.”

The evening continued with the Symphonic Band playing Minor Alterations by David Lovrien. This piece features all the well known Christmas songs but played in a minor key. They continued on to play Rest by Frank Ticheli. This piece isn’t a Christmas song, but it reminds people to unwind and relax, as Mrs. Dacy said. The students finished their performance with Laughing All the Way , another variation of Jingle Bells, arranged by Larry MacTaggart.

      “Minor Alterations was definitely my favorite piece because it was really cool to learn all my favorite Christmas songs in a different way than usual,” Emilio Penny ‘20 said.

      After the Symphonic Band played, the French horns from all the bands got on stage and played a few Christmas carols, conducted by Mrs. Dacy’s husband, Mr. John Dacy. Shortly after, both the Wind Symphony and Wind Ensemble entered the stage. This year, the top two bands joined together to play their music. The students started off with Russian Christmas Music by Alfred Reed. The combined band was then joined by the choir to sing with their second piece A Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson. This song featured a combination of the classic Christmas carols like Joy to the World and Silent Night. The band finished the night off with Sleigh Ride, also arranged by Anderson.

      ”I had a lot of fun playing with both the bands,” Erin Xu ‘21 said. “It was about 80 people together on stage to play different pieces and it was a really cool experience to rehearse and perform with them.”