Sophia Goldberg, staff writer
Both the concert and symphonic bands brought home gold from the Forum Music Festival on April 1.
The music festival, held at Fullerton College, consisted of middle and high school teams from all over the country. Beverly’s gold rating means the judges placed the band in the top 10 percent of the entire competition.
“[The competition is] basically just bands, orchestras and choirs from any middle or high school across the country that come and perform. Adjudicators then rate the performance. It’s a good way for bands to see how good they are and get a chance to perform in a professional environment,” first chair French Horn player Brandon Lee said.
Alto saxophonist Kathy Sanchez feels pride in the band after they won two team plaques and several individual plaques at the festival.
“According to the adjudicators, our bands had superior performances. This means that we met all the tone, articulation and dynamic requirements in order to get the best rating,” Sanchez said. “We won two plaques for our band along with a few individual plaques for instrumentalists that were recognized for their own outstanding performance.”
Percussionist Amanda Lee believes that the practices during lunch for the past eight weeks allowed the whole band, which is spread out between two periods, to prepare for the competition together.
“We’ve rehearsed this music for a while now. Because our concert band is two different periods, Mr. Bradbury arranged for the whole concert band to come together during a couple lunches to play through our pieces,” Lee said.
Sanchez states that the festival gives the students important lessons about responsibility and working together in order to put together a piece.
“Festival serves as an important experience for everybody. It’s a way for people to learn how to work with others and take responsibility to learn their music,” Sanchez said. “We’re one big family and we work together as a team to be the best.”