Junior High Band Wins Sweepstakes
By Randal Brewer
Staff Writer
The Wills Point seventh and eight grade bands both received a sweepstakes awards at the UIL contest held in Mabank on April 2.
The students competed in two categories – Concert and Sight Reading. In Concert, students must play from a state-approved music list of varying difficulty. Both bands chose and performed music at higher levels than required.
In Sight Reading, students and directors are given seven minutes to look at a piece of original music written for each conference. Neither are allowed to play the music until the seven minutes is up. The contest is designed to make sure students are learning to read and decipher music on their own.
Approximately 75 seventh graders, and 47 eighth graders, participated in the competition.
The same students participated in the Sounds of Spring Band contest on March 27 at Princeton High School - both bands received overall first division ratings in both the Concert and Sight Reading categories.
"We are extremely proud of our young musicians," said seventh grade director Ken McClellan. "They have worked very hard throughout the year and what we saw at the contest was an extension of their rehearsals."
"Our expectation level is very high for these students," said eighth grade director Kim Manuel said. "We ask them to do more than what is required by the state for their respective age levels. This year, the students achieved the level of expectation that we set for them at a very high level. We are extremely proud of them."
"We hope that two major things are accomplished by setting these high goals. First, we hope our students feel pride in themselves and the integral part that they played in achieving a goal, and in some cases surpassing a goal, set with a group of people as they have success in the contest setting.
"A child who feels successful is more likely to stay in school and achieve their own academic goals as well. We also would like to see their hard work eventually turn into dollar signs as they audition for and receive college scholarships."