Wind Ensemble participated in the annual Chabot Music Festival at Chabot College on Feb. 29, playing a total of three pieces: “Black Horse Troop” by John Philip Sousa, “With Quiet Courage” by Larry Daehn, and “Vesuvius” by Frank Ticheli.
Such music festivals provide opportunities for professional feedback. Students play in front of a panel of four judges, which consists mainly of local college band directors. After the performance, one of the the judges holds a private clinic, commenting on areas of improvement.
“It’s good to get professional feedback other than from their band director,” said Band Director Troy Davis, “and it also helps the director to be able to improve how he/she teaches.”
“My favorite thing about it was that it wasn’t a competition and it was only the judges there,” said sophomore Abby Chang. “They actually recorded feedback and we just listened to it in class which was very helpful.”
Additionally, music festivals allow students to listen to other school bands play. Schools around the bay area are registered to go perform at the Chabot Music Festival.
“You get to hear other groups [play] and you can hear new music, new ways of approaching something, you can be inspired by how they perform,” said Davis. “It’s really important to be able to grow as an artist by experiencing other artists.”
Davis picked the pieces that Wind Ensemble played. For each festival, specific types of pieces are played in order to get feedback for each.
“When you go to a festival like this, you want to have a balanced set of music.” said Davis. “Generally, you have like a march, and then a slow lyrical piece and then either something more contemporary or a big blockbuster piece on the program.”
Davis picked pieces that are newer for his students, so that they could get more feedback at the early stages in order to better prepare for when they play the same pieces in the future.
The pieces they played at the festival will be performed again throughout the semester, as the Chabot Music Festival was more like a warm-up concert. It was the first time they played that set of music, as the students, with some constructive feedback from the judges, still have a lot to work on.
“That being said, I thought they did a really good job,” said Davis. “It was a fun concert and they, in four rehearsals, pulled together a whole set of music.”
Wind Ensemble worked hard before the festival to prepare the pieces, as they were relatively new to them.
“That was the first festival I’ve been to and it was the first one this year,” said Chang. “I think we did pretty well.”
The Chabot Music Festival is similar to many other music festivals around the state, as this format was standard with the performing and receiving feedback. Each class usually does around one or two festivals each year to perform and learn from other schools.
