ATSSB All Region Band Rehearsals - The Inside Track
Last December, FCA Frisco participated for the very first time in the Association of Texas Small School Bands (ATSSB) All Region auditions. The ATSSB is a musical organization dedicated to promoting the interests of small school bands in Texas. Membership is open to any band at a high school or middle school classified as 4A or below. Small public, charter and private schools are all eligible to join. The regional and state auditions and concerts provide students with an opportunity to participate along with students from other small schools in concert preparations and performances. In our region which is region 24, there are schools from Dallas as far north as Anna and Leonard. At the auditions students perform and are judged and ranked against all other middle or high school students for each instrument. The top ranked students are awarded places in Middle or High School Symphony Bands and the next group of highest ranked students are awarded places in the Middle or High School Concert Bands. The number of students in each category varies depending upon the instrument played. In total 200 students are chosen from several thousand candidates.
Our esteemed Band Director Harold Sprouls very bravely took 37 of our middle school students to the auditions with outstanding results as 14 of our students were awarded places in the all region bands, 5 in Symphony and 9 in concert. We also had one student, Joy Adeyamo join the high school Symphony Band playing double bass.
FCA Frisco is classed as a 1A school - the smallest sized school classification in the program. What makes FCA Frisco different and what is so wonderful for our students is that, unlike almost every other public, charter or private school, ALL our students get the opportunity to play in either band or orchestra in middle school as well as participating in visual art classes.
The all region concert rehearsals took place in Anna on Friday January 17th with the concerts scheduled for the following afternoon. I was lucky enough to be invited to chaperone our students at the rehearsals together with Mr. Sprouls. So at 7am on Friday morning the students and I boarded the bus to take us to Anna. We arrived in Anna and took our students to their rehearsals - some were in the Anna middle school and the rest in Anna high school. Throughout the day I visited the different rehearsal venues. Students started warming up at 8:30am and then at 9:00am rehearsals began with a break from 12 noon to 2pm for lunch with rehearsals ending at 4:30pm. A long day during which students got to grips with the pieces selected for the concert performances - music they had not previously seen and music that for all levels was challenging. Throughout the day I was just blown away by how amazing the music sounded, right from the very start of the pieces and I was amazed by how quickly the performances progressed. I was so impressed by the clinicians (the musical directors hired to work with each band). I got the opportunity to talk with the clinician for the high school Symphony Band, who is the Band Director at an East Texas junior college. He told me how much he enjoys getting the opportunity to work with young students and how impressed he was with how hard the students worked.
During the day there were also meetings for the middle and high school band directors. Mr. Sprouls is the only Director who supports both middle and high school students. The meetings took place at the same time and, given that Mr. Sprouls cannot split himself in two, I offered to attend the high school directors’ meeting on his behalf. There were directors present from 24 different high schools - all of them invested in the ATSSB all region program. As the head of the high school program commented, it takes a large village to put together these events.
At the end of the day we collected the students. There were lots of comments made about stiff lips and sore tongues - five and a half hours of playing their instruments is not something they do every day! On the bus ride home I got the chance to ask our students what they thought of their first all region experiences. They shared with me their impressions.
Talking with Diya Patel (concert flute) and Cate Rosewicz (concert trumpet) they told me that it had been a really fun day and a good experience. They were very proud of the fact that as 7th graders they had got into all region as they discovered during the day that most of the other band members were 8th graders. They have both only been playing their instruments for just over a year so it truly is a wonderful achievement.
Gianna Stebley (concert clarinet) described the day as “very eventful”. Gianna told me that she finds it inspiring that in today’s world children are getting the opportunity to play classical music and have the experience of playing and performing instead of being constantly on their electronic devices.
Bryce Tackett (concert, clarinet) said to me that it is amazing when so many students and instruments come together to make pieces of music come to life. He said that he was learning that there are so many musicians in the world who have created so much awesome music.
Joy Adeyamo (double bass, High School Symphony) said that while tt was challenging being a 9th grader playing with so many students who are great musicians it was also a really great experience.
It was a very long tiring day for our students and on Saturday they got to do it all again with another five hours of rehearsals followed by the concert performances. But the experiences our students will have had this weekend will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
I got a real appreciation for the dedication of Mr. Sprouls to making a success of the middle and high school band programs at FCA Frisco. He was back at Anna all day again on Saturday. I asked him what motivated him and he told me “our students, they are great kids”. I have to agree after spending the day with these talented musicians. They work hard and are very appreciative of being afforded these opportunities.
I am looking forward to seeing our music programs grow and develop at FCA Frisco. I hope I get invited back to rehearsals for all region 2021 as I very much enjoyed my day.