As it neared 9 pm, band director Arlene Burney glanced at the clock and wistfully announced that the winter concert had yet again run beyond her estimates. There was a ripple of laughter from the musicians and a cry of dissent. Indeed, with three bands, two jazz ensembles, and one combined performance, the winter band concert has never ended short of two and a half hours. In spite of its epic length, the multipurpose room was overflowing last Thursday night with parents, friends, former students, and administration, all looking forward to hearing a wonderful musical performance.

   Just as the audience was impressed with the concert, the students were fairly satisfied with their performance as well. Senior Casey Aldrich, a bass player for symphonic band, expressed her opinion.

   “It wasn’t the best performance we’d ever done, but as a whole it wasn’t too bad. It went pretty okay. Freshman band did pretty well. Freshman band is a lot smaller than they’ve been in the previous years… so it makes it really difficult for them but they did really well for their first concert. Concert band… always do[es] well just because they have a full class period and Ms. Burney spends a lot of time with them,” said Aldrich.

   Junior Martin Contreras, a saxophone player for symphonic and jazz band, had a similar opinion.

   “I felt that overall it went really well. Freshman band is small but they have a great sound, so I think when they’re seniors they’re going to have a really good group. Concert band is really full and balanced and I really liked their selections. Symphonic band, we had a variety of pieces and I feel like overall that went really well. JV jazz played well considering a lot of them just started out on their instrument – their second instrument – and I think that varsity jazz did really well. We just had everything pretty solid,” said Contreras.

   Nonetheless, while the concert sounded excellent to those with little musical experience, the band students were more critical of their performance and felt there was room to improve.

   “I feel like any band can improve in intonation. I felt like any other groups could always improve on dynamics; that’ll make you seem like a more professional group. Other than that i felt balance was really good for all the bands. [Balance is] just a good overall sound. You don’t hear the trumpet section overpowering the clarinet section, or stuff like that. So I feel like each group is really well balanced, and if they nail down intonation and work on dynamics they’ll sound a lot better,” said Contreras.

   “Big thing we had to work on last year was intonation, which is how in tune we are as a section, and our solos. Because although our soloists are really great… a lot of our soloists play as if they’re just playing with the rest of the section. So they come out as a solo… but they don’t sound like a soloist. Which is really hard especially when you’re in a band like this, because we don’t focus on specifically teaching individual people; we do practice by ourselves and rehearse with the band. Keeping tempo’s another good one,” said Aldrich.

   The band was not the only performing arts to put on a concert recently. Chamber and concert choir performed together on December 8. Freshman Maryanne Boaz discussed her first concert.

   “I think as a group, we did pretty good. I don’t think the main part is about sounding good; I think the main part is about sharing music and just having fun and being able to sing with happiness. I certainly felt happy on stage, and I think everyone else did pretty well,” said Boaz.

   Contreras, who is also in choir, had a similar opinion.

   “I felt like we did really well. Both concert choir and chamber choir did really well, and actually I feel like this year concert choir is really strong. They have really balanced sections. [As for where we could improve], I feel like it’s always going to be a matter of balance and dynamics for the most part… I feel like band and choir relate in the same things that they can improve on,” said Contreras.

   The music department with be starting off the new year with a performance by the jazz bands at the CMEA festival on Sonoma State campus in January.