Orchestra director Evan Farmer’s favorite way to celebrate a good competition is with a little misdirection. This year, he even got assistant principal Gary Brain to help break the news.
“We always kind of go in there kind of sad and depressed, like we didn’t do it, and then we surprise them with (the trophy),” Farmer said. “We got Mr. Brain involved this year … He walked in and was like, ‘Did somebody drop this trophy on the ground?’ So it was super cheesy, but that’s who I am.”
The school’s full orchestra walked away from UIL on Feb. 24 with all 1s from the six judges, which is the highest score that can be awarded. This was the first time orchestra and band combined into a full orchestra for UIL since 2012.
“The best part is when the kids see how much their hard work has paid off and they get that feeling of accomplishment,” Farmer said. “We feel validated as teachers, but there’s nothing like walking away with the UIL trophy. You’ve had to earn it. They don’t just hand them out.”
The symphony consisted of strings, horns and percussion. The chamber and sinfonia orchestras worked together with the wind ensemble.
Combining the orchestra and band isn’t just a chore, it’s also a bonding experience for everyone involved. Not just for the students, but the directors too. Farmer worked closely with band director Bre Osbourn.
“It’s nice to bounce ideas off of somebody else and get our kids to see a different leader in front of them,” Farmer said. “Our conducting styles are completely different, and she’s way more artsy than I am. Her conducting is very graceful, and I look like a robot up there.”
Typically, combining two different orchestra classes for a concert leads to a gap in skill level between the two groups. Luckily, that was not an issue for the talented sinfonia players who went above and beyond.
“I was really impressed with the way that our sinfonia orchestra class really stepped into this,” Farmer said. “The music that they had to play for that is significantly harder than what they have to in their class.”
A few weeks before UIL, Farmer and Osbourn arranged after school rehearsals for the full orchestra. This finally gave the symphony a chance to play together and work on figuring out the music as a group.
Junior violist Devin Love started his orchestra journey in sixth grade at Kingwood Middle School. Love is now in the varsity chamber orchestra.
“(UIL) was a really cool experience for me,” Love said. “I rarely ever get to play music with the band as well, and I think they did really well.”
Practicing together as a whole orchestra for UIL was strictly during after school rehearsals, since it’s impossible to find time in a school day for everyone to be together.
“It made the time that we spent together more important,” Love said.
Even though Love only got to listen to their performance from right in the center of it, he still could hear how well everyone was playing together. He enjoyed all the time he spent with everyone rehearsing their “top-tier performance.”
