By: Genesis Chavez
The last time any of the local middle school or high school performing arts performed in a CMEA festival was March of 2020; and it would be their last performance before this year. For some students it is a return to a familiar experience, for many it is an unfamiliar event. Jordan Ray; Redwoods Band director and the CMEA festival, shares how the CMEA festival is ran along with the changes being made to this year format.
CMEA organizes the middle school and high school groups into different groups. Redwood will be sending the Advanced Ranger Band and Wind Ensemble to CMEA. Ray says that “Classes are determined by CMEA by school size and the level of the ensemble at our school. So Advanced Ranger Band is in a lower class than Wind Ensemble due to playing ability and the difficulty of the pieces performed by each group”.
Redwood holds a free pre-festival concert to get a live run before festival, Which will this Tuesday, March 1st. Ray adds that “It is a chance to preform before the actual CMEA festival and gives students a great opportunity to learn from any mistakes that may arise due to nerves. The CMEA Music Festival is a chance to showcase our bands and receive feedback from a panel of judges who rate our performance on what they hear from our group that day.”
One of the major changes to this years CMEA is the scoring format. In past years, schools would only preform the pieces they prepared and that would be what was used to give groups a score. This year, CMEA implemented the option for schools to chose to either have session with a judge and work on the music they had already prepared, or choose to have a sight reading clinic; which you need to do in order to have the chance to receive the highest score if an unanimous superior.
Ray adds “This year I asked students what they wanted to do the bands overwhelmingly chose sight-reading so that’s what we decided to do . . . “
This year we were unable to host festival at L.J. Williams Theater due to district restrictions with outside groups so we moved the festival down the street to Gateway Church to accommodate all the bands involved.” Ray said.
Mr. Ray also adds how he choices the certain pieces the band is to play in this years music festival as well as the challenges he and the band has had coming back.
When it came to choosing music, Mr. Ray says”I chose music for the ensembles that not only highlight their strengths but also push them to perform at a level or two beyond their current playing level. I enjoy watching students push through the difficulty and rise to the occasion . . .”
Ray adds that Right now, this semester feels very normal. Other than student absences, we haven’t really been impacted this semester and it really feels like any other year. I am happy with the progress the students are making and I look forward to seeing how the grow over the next 2 weeks going into CMEA Music Festival on March 11th.”
This years music festival has is one of the most unique seeing that some students are experienced and some are less experienced with this being one of there first festivals this year. From the perspective of an upperclassmen bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet player Raul Arredondo ’23 says “At this festival I look forward to playing the pieces of music we have . The festival is an opportunity to showcase our handwork the last couple of months . . .”
The Redwood Bands will be playing 5 pieces in total. The Advanced will be playing “Chorale and Shaker dance” by John Zdechik and “Royal Scotch Highlighters” by Karl. L King, With Wind Ensemble performing “The Redwoods” by Rossano Galante, “This Cruel Moon” by John Mackey and “Galop” by Dmitri Shostakovitch.
Arredondo says “My favorite piece is “This cruel Moon” by John Mackey. This Music is a roller coaster of emotions. It accelerates the human body when people are listening to it- And I love that. It’s also such a hard piece of music to learn because of how complex the music is but I love it. Its challenge for the Redwood Band. And all of us can handle that challenge . . .”
Arredondo adds ” I’m very excited to preform at festival. You only get one time to present music. One chance and that’s whats so amazing about it. Its a mental challenge.”
Baritone Saxophone player Pricila Cenobio ’23 adds “My favorite piece has to be Royal Scotch Highlighters. I love the adrenaline that surges through me while playing a March and I always love being a part of the machine that keeps the tempo and band moving. This is not my first will not be my first time to attend a festival in high school, my freshman year I was able to attend a festival before it got shut down.”
Cenobio adds “I am beyond excited I’m stocked to be able to be apart of this festival once again. Its always fun to see other musicians from other schools and talk to each other. I always look forward to the critique and judgment we will get on our playing that will make us better musicians and a better ensemble.
“As a Junior, my freshman year I was lucky to be able to preform. It feels weird to be back into concert mode after I had not been to festival in almost 2 years. I think about the challenges that our group have faced just to be able to play it dose break my heart this is my second to last festival, but I always look forward to making memories and get better in music” Cenobio says.
Oboe player Graciela Garcia ’23 also adds “I looked forward to preforming in front of judges as a concert band now rather than a marching band last fall. I’m excited to watch other bands play too . . . my favorite is probably “The Redwoods” but I do enjoy “This Cruel Moon” and “Galop” .
“Unfortunately this is my fist festival in high school. I lived in Japan during Freshmen and Sophomore year and because Covid was still a big thing, we couldn’t travel to participated in festivals.” Garcia says.
“I haven’t participate in any festival but in my middle school my band went to many and we always scored unanimous superiors and this past fall we were adjudicated on our marching so I’m not at all nervous about preforming in front of another judge this spring . . . although I didn’t have the luxury of playing in festivals my previous years of high school I still did have normal performances like concerts.” Garcia says
Trumpet player Gavin Stoll ’25, who is new to the “Everyone in band has worked so hard to make sure that this music is great and I’m looking forward to presenting the music . . . I really like “Chorale and Shaker Dance” that song is 10 minutes long and it is a beautiful piece. I’m happy that we can preform and with such a great song. Also we have a great teacher that has made everyone in band significantly better.”
Arrendondo ’23 finally adds “Honestly, it is quite a lot emotions. I still remember playing as a freshman and now I am a junior. I’m more ready than ever to show how well I’ve improved as a musician not only on a personal level, but also as an ensemble”.
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