By Erik Sietsema
The Big Sandy High School music program closed out the 2025–2026 school year with a string of accolades from district and state festivals, capped by local concerts that showcased a growing pool of young talent.
District and state festivals — the music program’s equivalent of competitions — bookend every school year, and Big Sandy had a particularly strong showing this time around, with students earning high scores at every level. The community concerts that followed made it easy to see why.
This year’s District Festival was held in Shelby. Music teacher TJ Bond described the weekend: “We had some really tough judges, but a lot of our students received very high scores. We had quite a few events that made it through to state-level competition, which was two weeks later in Billings. At the state competition, we had some great showings.”
Bond explained the festival scoring system, which runs on a 1-to-5 scale: 1 is Superior, 2 is Excellent, 3 is Good, 4 is Fair, and 5 is Poor. “All of our band and choir students scored at least a 2 — Excellent — with quite a few earning Superior scores,” he said.
“At Districts, we had one set of events Friday with our full band and full choir, and then Saturday was small groups, with 16 events total,” Bond added. “It was a full weekend.”
At the District Festival, the following Big Sandy students earned Superior or Excellent recognition: Heather Sherburn, trombone solo (1); Alleyah Eagleman, flute solo (1); Colter Han, saxophone solo (1); Aliyah Cartwright, saxophone solo (1); Lyndee Worrell, piano solo (1); the Sandy Sweethearts girls’ choral performance (1); the Sandy Winds ensemble (1); Marquell Houle, flute solo (2); the Sandy Select choral performance (2); Jaxon Jones, trumpet solo (2); and Josh Hagen, trumpet solo (2).
Bond praised the consistency of his students’ performances at the state level. “They all received very high, very good scores. A 2 is very solid; 3s happen, 4s happen. So the fact that we get 1s and 2s consistently means our students are at the top echelon.”
Students earning a Superior at districts qualified to advance to the state festival, where Big Sandy’s musicians distinguished themselves once again. Lyndee Worrell, Aliyah Cartwright, Alleyah Eagleman, Heather Sherburn, and the Sandy Winds Ensemble each received Superior (1) ratings. The Sandy Sweethearts and Colter Han each earned Excellent (2) scores.
Following the District Festival, the music program presented its annual “Encore Concert,” featuring the full band and choir.
“The high school concert is always a very relaxed concert because nothing about it is new,” Bond said. “The students have already performed this music really well in front of judges, and it’s a chance to encore it for the community and showcase everything that went well. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect — it just means the music, no matter what, will sound great. I think that really showed at this concert. The band, the choir, and all the groups that performed did a really nice job and made some great music for our community. It showcased why we do so well at our competitions.”
The elementary concert was the final music event of the school year. “It’s a nice chance to showcase to the community everything they’ve learned throughout the year,” Bond said. “We had some great groups perform, especially the fifth graders. For small-group performances this year, we had ‘Seven Nation Army’ and the theme from Bluey, which a lot of people really enjoyed. We also had some great songs from the younger students.”
“This year, we had an entire section of the concert dedicated to teaching the founding of our nation, with songs like ‘July 4, 1776,’ ‘The Constitution,’ and ‘We the People,’” he continued. “I think a lot of people really enjoyed that. One thing I think more people are recognizing is that a lot of the hand motions for the songs incorporate American Sign Language. So there’s a lot of extra learning happening — it’s not just the music, but how it connects to everything else. I think this last concert really showed that.”
With the school’s concerts and music competitions wrapped up for the year, Big Sandy offers a hearty congratulations to its students — and a sincere thank you to Mr. Bond for nurturing the community’s budding musical talent.
Photos from Big Sandy Schools
