It has been an exciting year of music for the High Desert Middle School bands! Below is a recap of HDMS band achievements over the past few months. Feel free to share this post and the social media posts linked below, and congratulate these amazing band students. Our last two performances of the year will highlight some of these achievements and we look forward to seeing you at our Spring Concerts.
Advanced Band @ Music In The Parks
On Saturday, April 27th, Advanced Band traveled to Portland to participate in the Music In The Parks festival at Gladstone High School. After our performance, we spent the rest of the day at Oaks Park, an amusement park in Portland. Advanced Band was awarded two trophies for a superior rating and was the highest-scoring middle school band of the festival! Congratulations to Advanced Band!
Jazz Band Festivals
The Jazz Band participated in two jazz festivals in April. On Saturday, April 13, the HDMS Jazz Band and Jazz Choir traveled to Pleasant Hill, OR, to perform at the Pleasant Hill Jazz Festival. Jazz Band placed second out of six bands! We also attended an evening performance featuring Grammy-winning jazz artist, Esperanza Spalding. It was an inspiring day of jazz!
A few days later, on April 16th, Jazz Band performed at the Redmond Jazz Festival and was the highest-scoring jazz band of the entire festival. Congratulations, Jazz Band!
COMEA Middle School Band Festival
In March, Advanced Band and Intermediate Band participated in our yearly regional band festival. Band festival is a yearly musical event where middle school bands from around Central Oregon come together to perform, receive feedback, and celebrate their musical achievements. Feedback comes in the form of written comments, a post-performance clinic, and a score from the adjudicators. I tell students that respectable scores are usually in the 70s and 80s at band festival. Intermediate Band performed very well and was one of the only 7th-grade groups at the band festival. They received scores of 72 and 73 from each respective judge. Advanced Band made us proud as well, scoring an 82 and 83. Advanced Band was one of the two highest-scoring groups of the day. Congratulations to both groups for their hard work and musical excellence!
HDMS Bands On Social Media
In March, Bend-La Pine Schools Assistant Director of Communications Becca Burda profiled HDMS Bands in a social media post about Music In Our Schools Month. The fifth-period beginning brass and percussion class had a blast during the photo shoot, and I am thankful for the opportunity to highlight our band students. Ironically, I do not have social media accounts so I cannot share the posts. If you are inclined to share on social media, click on the pages below and scroll to the Music In Our Schools Month post (it was posted in mid-March, so scroll way down…).
HDMS Band Students Represent at All-Region and All-State Honor Bands
Back in January, several HDMS band students were selected to participate in all-region and all-state honor bands. The following students from Advanced Band participated in the COMEA Middle School Honor Band. This was a two-day event where students rehearsed difficult music under the direction of guest conductor, Laura Arthur, band director and music administrator in the Portland Public Schools. These students worked hard and put on an amazing concert at the end of the two days.
Grayson Armington – Trombone
Brayden Johnson – Trombone
Teagan Crawford – Clarinet
Elizabeth Cape – Flute
Parker Russell – Trombone
Ayleen Buenrostro – Flute
June Gaither – Flute
Austin Fain – Alto Saxophone
Audric McCohan – Baritone Saxophone
Bristol Bravo – Tuba
Additionally, 7th grade flute player Elizabeth Cape auditioned and was selected to participate in the Oregon Music Educator’s Association Middle School All-State Band, a two-day honor band event for selected students from around the state. Congratulations, Elizabeth!
Recap
Thank you again for your support of the HDMS band program. It has been a fun and rewarding first year for me at HDMS.
If you happen to have photos of any of the events above, please share them with me so I can add them to this post!
High Desert Middle School Band 