Pre-Conference Performance

Monday was great. Our pre-conference performance was everything that I had hoped for and more. I’m guessing we had about 700 people there. It was an amazing audience…extremely supportive and energetic. It was a very strong performance, which really helped the kids enter this week with a ton of confidence. At the same time, there were enough “issues” that it’s been easy to keep the intensity and focus in rehearsals.

Tuesday we had a two-hour rehearsal. Most the time was spent on the concert stuff, and a little on the material that we’ll be playing during Bruce Pearson’s clinic tomorrow morning.

This morning (Wednesday) we had a two-hour rehearsal before heading to Chicago. Mr. Pearson spent an hour with the kids going over his session. We spent the next hour doing detail work on the first half of our program. We’ll hit the second half tomorrow morning. After making sure everyone was extremely clear as to what my expectations for their behavior was, we loaded the buses and left for lunch, then the Hilton.

The first thing we did at the conference was attend the Permian High School Symphonic Band performance. It felt important to get the kids in to watch a concert or two. Not only would it allow the kids to become familiar with the room both visually and acoustically, but it would also set a very high standard in the kids’ minds as to what we are looking for on Friday. Set the standard they did! What a terrific band, and a wonderful performance (wow, those horns!). The kids were talking about this concert all the way home.

Following a brief visit to the exhibit halls we joined the line to see the Doerre Intermediate School performance. They played absolutely beautifully. Their hard work was completely evident throughout the concert.

Even while watching the performances, it still hadn’t quite sunk in that we’d be on that stage in two days. Nerves aren’t too bad yet, I imagine they’ll kick in soon.

(For topic suggestions or questions relating to our Midwest performance I can be contacted via email: cdestefano@skokie735.k12.il.us or through the contact page on our website.)

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