Ryan Cabildo
The McHenry County Honors Band plays at Huntley High School on January 20. The band was comprised on members from high schools all across the county, including 11 from MCHS.
Eleven students are getting ready in their all black outfits to perform at Huntley High School. Performing an amazing song after only two days of rehearsal. Faith Negele’s fingers glide down her clarinet.
Eleven MCHS students performed on January 10th as members of McHenry County Society Honor Band. The McHenry county honor band is an organization with the McHenry county schools, like Huntley, Crystal Lake South, Crystal Lake Central, Woodstock, Woodstock North, Harvard, Cary Grover, and many more, where kids are nominated by their directors and can audition, but only a few are selected.
“To be selected, students need to score the highest among their peers up to a certain cutoff and are judged in the fields of technical skill (right notes and rhythms), expression (emotiveness), and general tone/sound,” said band director Ryan Cabildo. “We also try to push and encourage students to audition who are particularly ambitious, want a more challenging experience, or simply display a lot of talent.”
Many people in MCHS are initially interested in auditions. There is a run off audition the week before the live audition where the top scorers in that group move on to the final round.
“Take your time with your audition, their audition music, it’s better to be more accurate and slow down,” said MCHS junior Maddie Canada.
Students are afraid to audition for Honor band because it can be competitive. But, being a part of an honors band can create great memories. It is an amazing thing to join if you really enjoy music not only for the great memories but for the opportunity and the learning experience.
“It’s a lot less scary than you think it is, it’s really fun,” said MCHS senior Faith Negele.
Coco Levesque, Nathanial Gibson, James Mihevc, Jack Skaathun, Elouise Cavazos, Gavin Wuchter, Jianna Thorne, Samantha Goff, Madeline Canada, Audrey Dunwoody, and Faith Negele only had two days of rehearsal with Dr. Cormac Cannon before they performed at the concert.
“It was a really nice experience even though it was hectic to play for so long it helped me really grow,” said Canada.
With the new unforgettable experiences made there can always be some challenges you may encounter throughout being part of Honors county band.
“I joined McHenry County Honor Band because I wanted to challenge myself,” said Canada. “It was actually a pretty nerve wracking audition process but It was really good for me to learn how to prepare and actually audition. I also wanted to improve on my sight reading through this and it really did help me become better at sight reading and just my instrument in general.”
McHenry honors band can be for everyone. It can be for a hobby or because it is what you want to pursue in the future.
“I auditioned because I have been in it since freshman year and I have always had so much fun being a part of it,” said Negele. “I have gotten to meet so many new people, and I always learn so much from the honor band program.”
At the end of the amazing performance everyone cheered and clapped. Musicians met each other and got to see other musicians perform. The students left with big smiles, new memories made and a memorable experience.