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TexasTowelie

(111,288 posts)
Wed Nov 6, 2013, 10:17 PM Nov 2013

3 Leander school district marching bands sweep state championship

#t=99

In most UIL state championship contests, schools face the intimidating prospect of taking on rivals from across the state. But for student musicians in the Leander school district, their fiercest competition was in their own backyard.

At the 4A UIL state marching band competition Tuesday in San Antonio, the three competing high school bands from the Leander school district — Vandegrift, Cedar Park and Vista Ridge — managed to take the top three spots, shutting out 25 of the best marching bands in Texas.

Vandegrift managed a first-place finish, dethroning neighboring Cedar Park, which finished first in the last 4A state competition in 2011. This year, Cedar Park settled for silver.

Vista Ridge High School bounced back from a flawed preliminary show to take third.

“Words cannot express how our kids felt,” said Vandegrift band director Jeremy Spicer. “It was magical. During the last song, our drum major, who was conducting the band, had tears in her eyes.”

Though there is certainly a rivalry among the school district bands, Spicer said their ability to sweep the top three spots speaks volumes about the school district’s attitude regarding music education.

“This would not have happened if there wasn’t a strong sense of camaraderie between these three schools,” said Spicer.

Cedar Park director Steve Wessels said his marchers were understandably disappointed about not retaining the championship but were still proud of the performance they gave.

“Everybody poured their hearts out onto that field,” Wessels said. “They were focused and they did their job, and that’s all you can ask for as a director. Vandegrift put on a heck of a show.”

There was also “a tinge of disappointment” for third-place finisher Vista Ridge, until the band realized it had been part of a district sweep.

“Any disappointment began to fade when we realized that LISD might have swept the medals … a historic achievement,” said Vista Ridge Marching Band director Bryan Christian. He added the band is able to take pride in coming back from a less than stellar preliminary round in which the band was initially ranked fourth.

All three bands have spent months perfecting their shows. Because part of the score is based on the difficulty of the music, they challenged themselves with arrangements of music by classical masters. Vandegrift and Cedar Park both opted for music from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, while Vista Ridge took on a score from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

The bands plan to spend the rest of the week celebrating their successful season. Most of the student musicians will be given a break from rehearsals, while champion Vandegrift will enjoy a formal medaling ceremony and a live TV appearance later in the week.

But there won’t be much time off for the directors. It’s time for them to begin planning next year’s show.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/3-leander-isd-marching-bands-sweep-state-champions/nbjxW/

[font color=green]Bands advance to the state finals every other year based upon their UIL enrollment classification. This year class 1A, 2A and 4A schools were in competition. Class 3A and 5A compete again in 2014.[/font]
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3 Leander school district marching bands sweep state championship (Original Post) TexasTowelie Nov 2013 OP
and you'll be glad to know.... dhill926 Nov 2013 #1
I have a few friends that are music educators TexasTowelie Nov 2013 #2

dhill926

(16,234 posts)
1. and you'll be glad to know....
Wed Nov 6, 2013, 11:02 PM
Nov 2013

that the vast majority of music educators I work with in Texas and elsewhere, are staunch liberals.

TexasTowelie

(111,288 posts)
2. I have a few friends that are music educators
Wed Nov 6, 2013, 11:22 PM
Nov 2013

and they vote liberal. It probably has something to do with the fact that the Republican educators have tried to eliminate fine arts programs in the education budget.

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