At 7:30pm on Thursday, February 23, the Holgate Middle School and High School bands participated in their annual Winter Concert, directed by Mr. Nathan Williams.

       The night began with the performance of the fifth grade band. They performed three songs throughout the night. The first song performed was “Sweetly Sings the Donkey,” followed by “Crusaders March,” and “Farm Out.”

       Emily Myers said, “I thought they did very well. They sounded very good and a lot better than the beginning of the year.”

       Carly Aelker, said “I thought we did ok for our grade.”

        Brandon Jones said, “There is room for improvement, but for as young as they are, they have a good starting base.”

       Soon after the fifth grade had concluded their performance the sixth grade then walked on stage to perform theirs.

       The sixth grade band also performed three songs. The first was “First Concert March,” followed by “Montego Bay,” and “Heavy Metal.”

       Emily Myers commented on the performance saying “They are several times better than last year. There is still room for improvement but they did very well”.

       Brandon Jones also commented “They did really well,” and sixth grade band member Carly Aelker thought the same.

       Up next was a Trombone solo performed by Ryan Miller. Emily Myers said how he did magnificently. “He performed a bicycle built for two {a song meant for two people to play at once} and is one of our best players.”

       The next performance was the seventh and eighth grade band. They performed three songs. They were ’51 Pegasus,” “Woodland Overture”, and “Fires of Mazama”.

       Brandon Jones said, “The seventh and eighth grade did really well and have improved leaps and bounds”.

       Following the seventh and eighth grade was the flute trio performed by Riley Smith, Tori Alexander, and Oliver Gerschutz.

       Ally Gonzalez said they played really well together. Garrett Blakley also said how the trio worked really hard on their songs and sounded really good. 

       The last performance of the night was the Symphonic band. This consisted of high school students.  They performed two songs. The first was “March from Second Suite for Military Band,” and the second song was “Shackelford Banks.”

       Ally Gonzalez said how the high school band did really well. “They have only practiced the songs a couple of times, but did really well”.

       Some upcoming events for the Holgate Band are the JH Solo and Ensemble contest in Defiance on April 14. The spring’s pop concert on May 6 and the JH Band OMEA contest at Owens CC on May 11 and 12.