Guiding students from room to room, Lauren Steidtman, senior, assists other schools’ students just before their performances at the Large Ensemble Festival.
Today, MHS hosted the Large Ensemble Festival, an event where 17 bands across the MSHSAA district perform in front of a panel of judges to receive a rating.
The band groups sightread a piece they’ve never seen before in the orchestra room, then practice their actual pieces in the band room, moving onto a performance by a panel of judges in the theater. The event started at 8 AM and will run until 4 PM.
“This one is just big groups, and we’re finally hosting, which is really exciting,” Steidtman said. “We’ve wanted to host something like this for quite a while now, and it was only recently when our band program grew to a size where we could efficiently host this.”
Leading up to the event, the band students set up chairs last week and came to school early this morning to continue setup.
As for her band’s performance, Steidtman isn’t worried, and said her classmates have done a great job preparing this year through countless practices.
“There’s a lot of stress keeping everything together,” Steidtman said. “When we go somewhere, we work really hard to make sure our band has a good image, so now that’s really important because everyone’s looking at us for where to go, what to do, and what happens now.”
Kareem Hachem-Baydoun, freshman, plays the baritone saxophone in the Wind Ensemble. He said that the coolest thing about meeting students from other schools is specifically meeting students who play the same instrument as him.
He hasn’t felt as nervous to perform today as he usually does when he has to perform at another school because performing at his own school makes him feel more confident.
“We represent our school so it’s important when we’re in other places,” Hachem-Baydoun said.
Associate Principal Dr. Michael Wegener worked with the band to coordinate the Large Ensemble Festival.
“Mr. Pierce and I met earlier in the year when they were talking about this and hadn’t booked anything,” Dr. Wegener said. “Leading up to it, we discussed parking, where students need to go, a visitor check-in process, just logistics stuff so we know everything that is going on.”
Dr. Wegener said MHS spent no funds for the event, and that MSHSAA is providing most necessities.
“This is done in collaboration with MSHSAA, so they pay the judges or adjudicators that are in there and stuff like that,” Dr. Wegener said. “It’s just a matter of us being a location where they’re able to hold the event.”
