Wednesday, April 14th, 2021 the Littlefield High School UIL Concert Band participated in Concert and Sightreading Contest (Evaluation), and came home with their 17th Sweepstakes Award for the past 18 years. Wow, what an achievement for them.
The Marchin’ Cats traveled to Denver City, host school for the contest, to complete the last big contest of the year. The band began serious preparations for this contest this past six weeks, when they put in early and late sectional rehearsals and passed off each piece of music to me (Miss A).
Their hard work and determination was displayed by the performance of their music pieces. They performed the following pieces of music: “Sol Y Sombra” by Gates/ Ragsdale, “The Seal Lullaby” by Eric Whitacre, and “Longford Legend” mvts 1 & 3 by Robert Sheldon. It was an honor to get to stand in front of them.
The judges for the Concert Portion of the contest were Gregg Miller-retired Iowa Park, Bob Vetter-retired Waco Robinson, and Sam Bode-Fredericksburg.
Some comments from the judges were:
Bode, “Some very musical things happening with this group,”
Vetter, “Thanks for playing so musically! Your band is very sensitive to the melodic line and the shaping of phrases, Very artistic and energetic”, “Awesome Job!! Bravo!!!”
Miller, “Bravo, it was a pleasure hearing you perform today!! CONGRATULATIONS!!”
The sightreading portion of the contest was judged by Ed Hefti-retired,
Dr. Charles Trayler-retired Dumas, and Justin Willis Anna High School.
This portion of the contest judges 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 4 minutes explain/point out different aspects of the music, tempo, like melodies etc. The last 3 minutes, the director can sing, clap, count out any rhythms to help the students prepare for performing the piece. The Wildcat band earned 1st Divisions from all 3 judges.
Dr. Trayler commented: “Outstanding Reading-My Pleasure”
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, Gina Muela, and Talitha Cook. We work together to get these amazing students ready for UIL.
To earn a Sweepstakes award the band must earn 1st Divisions in Marching (November), and Concert and Sightreading yesterday (April 14th).
We’re bursting with pride: Marchin’ Cats know “Hard Work Does Pay Off!!!” Congratulations on a job well done.