Aragon music’s String Fling and Band Bash occurred on March 29 and 30 in the Aragon Theater. At String Fling, the Borel Middle School’s Chamber Orchestra and Aragon’s Chamber Orchestra played many different musical pieces including classical, modern, which featured electric strings, and a combination of both bands ending with A Celtic Farewell together. Band Bash was a slightly larger affair, as bands from Crocker, Bowditch, and Borel played at the event, followed by the Aragon Symphonic Band.
Aragon’s band and orchestra members prepared well for the concerts. Junior tenor saxophone player Patrick Tse says, “Band Bash is always an interesting performance. We don’t really play our most challenging pieces, but we have to play them really well. For the most part, Band Bash works pretty well with our schedule and we’ll play pieces recently worked on in class, but we also bring back pieces from last semester, ones that we really spent a lot of time on, and give them a quick review. In general, most of our preparation was done during classes, we only had one flextime meeting for extra review.”
Even if the preparation done for Band Bash and String Fling was not as intensive as preparation for a festival or competition such as CMEA, it was aided by a more relaxed attitude. As junior first chair violinist Sean Heffernan states, “There’s certainly a far more relaxed atmosphere surrounding String Fling than there is surrounding a performance like our spring concert. There’s less pressure, and we can just show off to all the wide-eyed middle schoolers by playing pieces that aren’t really difficult”
As competitive as names like “Band Bash” and “String Fling” may sound, these events are not really competitions, but instead seeks to inspire young musicians. Helene Grotans, band teacher at Borel Middle School and conductor of Borel’s Symphonic Band and Chamber Orchestra, which played Band bash and String Fling, says, “Band Bash and String Fling are crucial for my students, especially the 8th graders. The longer a student plays an instrument, the more work they have to put into it. I understand that plenty students can become dissuaded by this increase of effort, and that’s why it’s important that they see students of a higher level play more intricate songs; it really shows them their potential if they continue down a musical path.”
Davis comments, “Being able to perform with the middle school students, bringing them all here on the Aragon stage, on which many of them have not performed before, and giving them the opportunity to hear us and collaborate is always really fun…a lot of [middle schoolers] tell me, ‘Oh yeah! I joined band because of the Band Bash!’”
7th grader trumpet player Steven Robinson enjoyed the spectacle, stating, “The Aragon band was really cool to watch, their pieces were really advanced compared to what we do. I like playing the trumpet, but I don’t take private lessons or anything; watching them play made me feel like I had more potential if I kept playing in school… I really want to get good enough at my instrument to be able to play fancy songs like Danzon no.2 and fun songs like Clown Act.”
8th grader violinist Mia Lee had a similar sentiment, saying, “I loved listening to to the Aragon Chamber Orchestra and playing with them. Mr. Chen seems like a great director, and it will be really fun to play for Aragon next year!”
