Warren’s Symphonic Band 1 performs a captivating concert at Illinois Allstate Conference in Peoria
February 5, 2023
Last Friday, January 27th, Warren’s Symphonic Band 1 traveled all the way to Peoria to perform at the prestigious Illinois Music Education Conference (IMEC). Only five other high school concert bands across the state were able to make it into this audition-based concert, and these other ensembles included Victor J. Andrew High School, Batavia High School, William Fremd High School, United Township High School and Alton High School.
The band played four pieces of music, “Galactic Empires”, “Voci Sacre”, “Celebrations”, and “Overture in Five Flat”, varying in speed and sound. After hearing Symph 1’s performance, many directors from different bands – including Alex Kaminsky of Vandercook College of Music – gave sincere compliments to Kurt Gros, director of Symphonic Band 1 at Warren. According to Gros, David Gillingham, composer of “Galactic Empires”, also congratulated the band. Dr. Dennis, founder of the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, declared the band’s performance one of the finest that he had witnessed over the course of his career.
Upon being asked about the amount of effort that went into the journey to the concert, Colin Lee, a senior alto-sax player, stated, “I mean, we practice everyday in school and of course over the weekend, you take your instrument home and you practice, so yeah I’d say a lot of preparation. It took more effort than I thought it would. Compared to this year’s music, last year’s wasn’t as tough. I feel like I had to work really hard just to get a really good sound.”
Mr. Gros, director of Symph 1 since 2006, elaborated on this effort. “With this group, I feel like I have 100% buy-in, and [the band has] been so good about it; when we need something to get to the next level it always has… A lot of times the journey is frustrating, especially when you’re in that last 5% when you’re trying to get all the details, and every time that [they] had another rehearsal or another performance, [the band] kept raising the bar of how good things were and it never stopped, [they] never tried to step back…raising that bar steadily until we got to today which was by far the best performance [they] have ever had.”
Before the concert, Kayla Tagudar, a senior percussionist, attested personally to Gros’s statement on the band’s hard work. “I’ve been practicing so much for this so I’m ready to put it all out there. I practice every day. It took so much preparation.”
On a similar note, senior alto-sax player Lindsey Prims said, “I feel excited to finally get to perform the music we’ve been working on since the fall and am looking forward to seeing what the group can do in this beautiful hall.”
The hall, a 7,000 square foot 3 balcony theater, was a source of excitement for many students. After the concert, Lauren D’Souza, a sophomore alto-sax player, stated, “I really liked the hall, its exuberance really made everything ethereal.” Further, her feelings towards the concert were, “decent, it lived up to my expectations. I feel the performance went really well.” Assistant Director Dave Tribley conducting Voci Sacre last Friday at the Peoria Civic Center.
Moreover, initial nerves – which can be especially heightened in a hall as intimidating as the Peoria Civic Center Theatre – can foil a band’s overall performance. Molly Petrizzo, a junior in the baritone section, gave insight into what alleviates such anxiety. “You just have to focus on the joy of playing the music, not so much on how much time and pressure it takes to get to the concert.” When asked how they felt about the concert and overall path to preparation, the directors, Mr. Gros,
Mr. Tribley, and Mr. Rogers, spoke highly of the band. For instance, Mr. Rogers, a new director at Warren, said, “I actually thought it took a little bit less [effort] than what I thought there might be because there was a significant amount of repertoire that we played…We could just come in, make music, everyone’s prepared, so I think it was just a lot easier to put together than I anticipated it was going to be for how difficult the music was.”
Further, when it came to improving the musical development of the band, Mr. Rogers gave a detailed description. “I was thinking about this the other day–you all kind of came in right away and you knew how to play the music. Were we able to play it at tempo? No, but we got it there, and the musical shaping that you just inherently started to do was fantastic right off the bat. For me at least, I just kind of used what you were already doing as an ensemble as a springboard; we messed around with tempos a little bit, we had some fun with adding our own interpretations of the music, so I think you all made it super enjoyable.”
Musical shaping like this could not have been possible without the diligent attitude that the Warren Band program hosts. Mr. Gros cited the ensemble’s “determination and the pride that you have all had in this organization” as the main reason why the band is so dedicated. “It’s been going on for over – gosh – 2-3 decades. All the upperclassmen have a high standard of what they want to see, when new students come in they’re surrounded by this drive for excellence…it becomes a part of them, and they continue the legacy of excellence.”
Along with a solid work ethic, the layout of Warren Bands’s curriculum was also particularly important to their success on Friday. According to Mr. Rogers, “This school gets it and understands that [concert band] has to be the focus, concert band is the cornerstone of what we do in a band program. That’s why I think this band is so successful…If you have that core group that’s really solid, marching bands will be great, jazz bands will be great, pep bands will be great, everything else will be great about the program.” Thanks to the program, directors, and students, Warren Symphonic Band I performed beautifully last Friday at Peoria.
When asked if he would send audition recordings back to IMEC, Mr. Gros said, “As long as the kids keep doing what they’re doing, heck yeah.”
