On Tuesday, Jan. 23, Upper and Middle School students played at the Winter Concert in Rose Hall. This concert is the band’s largest showcase, as it includes multiple divisions all in a single performance.

Band classes begin in fifth grade, where students are first exposed to percussion instruments, flutes, clarinets, trumpets and trombones. Later, students branch off into playing different instruments. For example, trumpet players learn how to play the French horn.

“It starts out very small, very basic and as we go on, we branch into more instruments, longer tunes, more complex music, that sort of thing,” Middle School Band Director Tony Lopez said.

The Band class began preparing for this concert in October. Compared to other concerts, the students spent more time preparing and practicing the songs for the Winter Concert.

Freshman Anya He, who plays the clarinet, performed at this showcase.

“It’s a bigger event, it’s more formal,” He said. “More people showed up than they did to the Fall Concert.”

At this concert, both Middle Schoolers and Upper Schoolers performed together for the first time. There were two sixth-grade classes that played together for the first time at this performance as well.

“That’s the only time that the [Middle School students] get to see the Upper School play, so it’s kind of neat for that,” Lopez said.

The students felt the hours they put into practicing for this showcase resulted in a strong performance.

“It was a really great experience; I had a lot of fun,” He said. “I like playing the songs and [they] are really fun to practice and perform.”

Following the concert, students are now moving into their solo and ensemble season where they have more individual learning time and focus more on independent work.

Additionally, students are focusing on preparations for the TPSMEA North Region Solo and Ensemble Competition on Mar. 2.

“[I] felt very proud of the students [at the Winter Concert] because they’ve put in a lot of work,” Lopez said. ‘We spent a lot of time on a lot of those pieces, and it turned out really well.”