The Big Sandy High School Music Program put on a recital last Wednesday, April 20th, in preparation for the District Music Festival which took place in Havre on Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23rd. The concert was an opportunity for various musicians and singers to perform their festival pieces in front of an audience. The opportunity was especially important because playing in public can be difficult for some students. This concert helped prepare the students to play for judges later. Due to Covid restrictions, it has been difficult to play for live audiences in recent school years. If the students were particularly nervous about the performance, it didn't show through in their music. Every performance was impressive to me, as an audience member and only rarely was a mistake evident.

Though I enjoyed all of the music performed, several stood out that are worth highlighting. Austin Haugen and Crescencio Torres performed a guitar duet rendition of Pachabel's Canon in D. After hearing Austin playing his guitar around the school on several occasions, as well as at the church with Jeramie Erie a few times, it was fantastic to see him on the stage. The boys performed their piece well, reflecting their dedication playing guitar and learning music.

The Big Sandy Sweethearts sang "The Ash Grove" accompanied by Jaycee Worrall on piano. The young ladies' voices were lovely and the performance was enjoyable to listen to. At other points in the concert, various members of the Sweethearts performed other vocal pieces which put their vocal talents on display.

I also particularly enjoyed Hunter Moore's Trumpet Solo performance of "Trumpet Tune." His perforce was tight and displayed the young man's trumpet prowess. Sherri Moore, his mother, exclaimed "I was very proud of him. He actually switched songs just a week ago. He's come a long way in a week."

I think the most impressive piece from Wednesdays' performance was Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" performed on the piano by Angie Sant. She played the piece beautifully and did so without using sheet music. Her mother explained, "That's her first time playing it without music... It took her a little while to and she was really scared to try it, because she hasn't done that before. She did really well. I'm pretty proud of her."

It would be easy to go on and on about various students' performances. From Ryder Galbavy and Tavie Wortman performing a saxophone duet of Rondo, to Severin Heimbigner and Heather Sherbern performing a trombone duet (with particularly enjoyable stage presence!), to Jai Baumann and Jaimie Jones' Flute duet, or any of the other students who performed; the students put on a delightful show. The band performed well in the District Festival. TJ Bond, the music teacher for the High School, explained that "the district festival is a music competition where we are graded on our ability... How do we sound? How are we doing musically? Are we just playing notes and rhythms or are we adding music to it? We get rated based on how we do." According to TJ, the students made a good showing of their musical talents, impressing judges and other music directors alike. "The kids really did a nice job. A couple of the songs we did for band and choir definitely weren't their best takes of it. But they were still a very good performance. Even the judges, in all accounts, were super impressed. From what I've heard from other

directors, we were probably one of the better groups there. And it showed. We impressed a lot of people that day."

In terms of the students' scores in the competition, Big Sandy did particularly well. "The rating system goes from one being perfect to five, you shouldn't have come. We got a very, very high two, the equivalent would be 89%." TJ went on to explain the scores were often close to perfect. "The small groups that happened on Saturday were in very similar boats. A lot of judges were impressed with how well they performed."

Sandy Sweethearts, l to r: Lainey Terry, Tavie Wortman, Jai Baumann, Jaycee Worrall, and Angie Sant.

In addition to showing well at the district competition, some of the students will be going on the next level of competition. "We'll have a few kids going on to the state level, which is even tougher judging. A few kids will go on to that on May 6th and 7th."