Throughout the band’s stressful marching season, many of the students had to balance that time along with their region music. All students were given three etudes of music to work on in July. Each of the songs were to help make them better musicians.

On Dec. 2 and Dec. 3, around 50 band members from the school participated in Region auditions with that music. Each instrument was divided into three different rooms, one for each etude. Everybody played a different cut from the three etudes, and they were then ranked on how they performed.

Seventeen people made it to one of the four bands. Sophomore Holden Spears was the only member to qualify for wind ensemble, which is the top band. 

“It was crazy and I was so excited,” Spears said. “I had never experienced anything like that before. You know, to see all my hard work put into something like that, it was really, really, really nice.”

Those who earned a spot in the symphonic winds include Jake Sisney, 12, Jacob Gilmore, 12, Matthew Bleier, 12, and Maddy Amaya, 10. Four members made the philharmonic band, including Stalyce Green, 12, Kashikala Mundemba, 10, Alexandra Linares, 10, and Joshua Chavez, 12. The district band included Andres Arana, 11, Dylan Reynolds, 10 and Hailey Whiteman, 12.

All four bands performed on Dec. 10 at Summer Creek, after they participated in a clinic on Dec. 9. At the clinic, the bands went over their music with all of the others from around the Region who had qualified.

Just auditioning for a regional band gets students more comfortable with performing in front of a judge and in front of others. It can also make them better musicians.

“It improves your instrumental technique and also improves just the mental competitive aspect of playing an instrument,” head band director Bre Osbourn said.

The further they advance, the better chances they have for scholarships. Osbourn requires members of the wind ensemble to participate in hopes of helping them get into a college they want.

“The top musicians need to participate because one, it’s the all-state process,” Osbourn said. “If you make state in Texas, you’re pretty much guaranteed a scholarship to any school you want to go to in the country.”

More kids made it than Osbourn has had in previous years at her old schools. She is proud of them.

“The fact that some of them that are afraid of it went through that and were successful is a really big thing,” Osbourn said. “Hopefully that’ll be something that everyone gets to keep doing.”