Wednesday April 20, 2022 the Littlefield High School UIL Concert Band participated in Concert and Sightreading Contest (Evaluation). The Marchin’ Cats traveled to Denver City, the host school for the contest, to complete the last big contest of the year, and came home with their 18th Sweepstakes Award.
The band began serious preparations for this contest this past 6 weeks. They put in early and late sectional rehearsals and passed off each piece of music to me, the director, (Miss A).
Their hard work and determination was displayed by the performance of their music pieces: Minnesota March by John Phillip Sousa/edited by Fennell, Salvation as Created by Tschesnokoff/ Houseknecht, and Pablo by Meyer.
The judges for the Concert Portion of the contest were Dr. Charles Trayler-retired, Abby Crawford-Dallas area, and David Fortenberry-Dallas area. The band earned First Division ratings from all 3 judges.
The sightreading portion of the contest was judged by Anthony Gibson-retired, Jennifer Voges-San Antonio, and Robbie Edwards-Dallas Area.
This portion of the contest, judges had the band on their skills to read a piece of music never seen or heard before. UIL hires a composer to write these pieces under guidelines set by UIL Music for each school classification. The director in our classification is given 7 minutes to get the band ready to perform it.
The first four minutes, explain/ point out different aspects of the music, tempo, like melodies etc. The last three minutes, the director can sing, clap, count out any rhythms to help the students prepare for performing the piece. The Wildcat Band earned First Divisions from all three judges.
The concert music performed by these students is on an upper level. The achievement of our success is made because of the students and all three directors, myself (Miss A), Gina Muela, and Talitha Cook, all who work together to get these amazing students ready for UIL.
To earn a Sweepstakes award, the band must earn First Divisions in Marching (November), and Concert and Sightreading (April 20th).
“We are so proud of these young musicians. They might have to be nudged a little bit, but The Marchin’ Cats know: “Hard Work Does Pay Off!!!”
Miss Anderson concluded her pride of the Wildcat Band’s success, stating “Congratulations on a job well done. It’s a great time to be a Marchin’ Cat!!!