Last weekend, 145 band students went to Cedar Ridge High School to participate in the region band auditions. All grades were represented at the competition. Students were placed in a room with 30-40 other players of the same instrument and a panel of judges. Each student then had to play portions in front of everyone in the room of three pieces they have been preparing over the course of the last few months.
Depending on their instrument, students auditioned on either Friday or Saturday. For the more popular instruments such as trumpet, flute, french horn, and clarinet, students auditioned on Friday and the top quarter of the room advanced to the phase two auditions on Saturday.
“I was really stressed this year about region auditions, because I really wanted to do well,” Rachel Horvit ‘17 said. “I was really excited when I found out I was advancing to area because I felt like it reflects the amount of hard work I put into preparing for these auditions this year.”
These auditions were the beginning of several phases, the last one being the all state auditions in the spring. Students auditioned on Saturday for the chance to move on to the area auditions, held in San Antonio in January. Of the participants this year, 8 students from Westwood are advancing to area.
“I was really nervous about topping my success of getting fifth chair last year, so I was really pleased when I found out I made second chair this year and met my goals.” French Horn Player Emily Fredrickson ‘16 said.
Regardless of how the students placed, the auditions are a good experience and an opportunity for students to deal with preparing and performing harder music for their instrument. While participation is not required, the band directors encourage all students to be a part of the competition.
“We’re all really proud of our students and their hard work, and we know that they all became better players because they worked on the audition music and chose to participate in the region band process.” Band Director Mr. Thomas Turpin said.
After a busy marching season, this was the first of many opportunities for the band members to perform individually. Later in the year, students will have the chance to participate in the UIL Solo and Ensemble Competition in February and the Westwood Band Solo and Ensemble Competition held in May.
