AISD bands finish with night of music

By Donnie A. Lucas

Albany band students ended the school year last Thursday with a concert showcasing each band both separately and combined.

The Sixth Grade Band performed first at the high school auditorium, followed by the Fifth Grade band. The seventh graders played a few selections alone, then joined the high school band for a combined concert. This year’s seventh graders will join the high school band in the fall as eighth graders, boosting the high school numbers to just over 50.

Ashley Sanchez was given the prestigious John Philip Sousa Award as the outstanding high school musician during the high school portion of the program.

Summer Band

Director William Vaughan announced the schedule for summer band rehearsals for next year’s high school band that includes grade eight through 12.

“We will be starting a week later than last year,” he said. “We did not have good attendance the first week last year, so we moved things forward a week. It is hard to have effective rehearsals if large numbers of students do not attend.”

Vaughan urged parents who attended the concert to keep the rehearsal dates in mind when planning summer vacations.

Practice will start the week of July 24-27 for the percussion section and pit crew. There will also be time for students playing other instruments to practice for the All-Region Band tryouts later in the year.

The remainder of the students in grades 8-12 planning to be in band next year will start summer band on July 31 and continue through Aug. 3, and also the week of Aug. 7-11.

“We will start working on music for our contest show, as well as other pieces for football season,” he said. “We will also start marching drills in August.”

The band will host a parents performance on Monday, Aug. 21 at the football stadium starting at 8:00 p.m.

The high school band will participate in marching contest on Oct. 7 at Abilene Wylie, followed by UIL Marching Contest on Oct. 16 at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene.