BHHS Bands Shine at Annual MSBOA Festival

Last December, the Bloomfield Hills High School bands began working on new music to perform specifically for “Festival.” This is an annual event organized by the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association where high school ensembles perform for a panel of adjudicators. The festival provides an opportunity to receive constructive feedback and ratings based on performance.

Ensembles are adjudicated in five categories: tone, intonation, rhythm, technique, and interpretation. In order to help them perform their best in each of these categories, Alan Posner, BHHS band director, brought in Dr. Courtney Snyder, professor of music from the University of Michigan. Snyder’s role was to assess the group’s performance in advance of the festival. Snyder reinforced Posner’s instruction, but also found areas for improvement. Snyder encouraged students to think about the bigger picture, to determine their cohesive sound, and to think about making music in order to create an atmosphere, not just to play music. 

At the Festival, in addition to performing the rehearsed pieces, the ensembles were also rated on a song they had to sight-read, which means they had not seen it before, and they had to do their best to play it without any rehearsal. This requires sincere concentration, a great familiarity with the conductor, and a certain level of trust in yourself and your bandmates. It encourages musical growth and excellence, even if it is challenging. As Kirpa Bedi (grade 11) said, “It’s stressful, but it’s fun! The feedback is great because it helps you improve next year.” Feedback is provided directly after the sight-reading task. Carl Knipe, adjudicator and prior Owosso HS band director for 40 years, gave empowering advice, stating, “Be more aggressive. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. That’s how you learn.”

One of the benefits to this experience is that it helps programs set goals and measure their progress. Alexis Albert (grade 12) indicated a positive outlook commenting, ”If you get a bad score one year, it motivates you to do better the next year.” That won’t be the case for the BHHS bands, though, as their hard work, determination, and superb instruction led all three bands to a superior first division rating, the highest honor. Furthermore, the concert band and symphony band received “straight ones,” and the symphony band received ALL A’s from every adjudicator in every subcategory.

Congratulations to all involved!