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April 30, 2009
By Sherry Lee
WHS band participated in the Bay Section Area III California Association for Music Education (CMEA) Band Festival at Irvington High School. According to the CMEA website its goal is to “promote the advancement of music education” and includes band directors from the region. Twelve other schools from Alameda County attended the festival, which allows band members to test their skills with that of other schools.
Band has been steadily practicing the three pieces they performed on April 24 since February. Their hard work paid off when they received an excellent, which is the second highest score, from all three judges.
They also performed a sight-reading piece. Band teacher Nicole Kellersburger was given five minutes to choose from a folder of set pieces, and an additional five minutes to point out important parts of the piece to the band before performing. Afterwards, the band played the song for the first time and was scored by music teacher John Felder to be superior. The scoring scale is as follows: poor, fair, good, excellent, and superior. Mr. Felder also commented that he liked how band incorporated the spirit of Chorale and March in their sight-reading piece.
“He was really fair in his judging. He seemed like a nice guy, if only a little overly enthusiastic,” junior Chris Valdez said.
In previous years, band has received an average score of good or excellent. They were able to meet the same standards by receiving scores of excellent and superior.
“There is always room for improvement. We did better than I expected,” junior Emily Khuc said.
Band members also generally enjoyed the pieces chosen for the festival.
“They were exciting and good pieces to keep the band interested in playing and practicing. They were good pieces for the level of the band, including me,” junior Alex Tyler.
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