Reading Article
ECHS Band receives superior ratings
By KRISTEN GEHMAN
Special to Atmore News
The Escambia County High School Concert Band recently received superior ratings at Huntingdon College Band Festival in Montgomery, Alabama. This accomplishment comes as a much anticipated return for all of the hard work students have put into their program this year.
Since marching band camp began in July of 2009, the ECHS band has been adjusting to change: a new director and a completely new outlook on band. According to the students, those changes were good ones, but there was still work to be done. The band had not received a superior rating at any competition for the past four years. Changing that record was put at the top of the check-list for this year.
“I thought it would be important for us to show the community that with hard work and dedication, we can be a superior band,” said Emmil Webb, senior band member. Hard work is definitely what it took to earn superior ratings.
According to outgoing drum major Sheena-Marie Currie, “It took hard work and dedication from everyone, not just the best musicians. Since it was the first time in over four years that we have competed at a concert contest, we stayed after school and went to other people’s houses on weekends to get in all the practice we needed. The improvement from where we were to where we are has set the standard for in the future.”
Speaking of the future, the band is currently preparing for the 2010 marching season. When asked how the superior ratings at Huntingdon would be of benefit in the upcoming year, the 2010–2011 drum major Rainy January replied, “We really showed how good we are and what we can do. An accomplishment like this will only help us achieve more and more.”
Achieve is just what Rainy and her fellow band mates have planned for this year. “We are really excited. We’re going to work hard and be a family. People can expect to see an entertaining band that will represent ECHS well. Expect to see us take it to the next level.”
ECHS band students will kick off their summer preparations with band camps starting on July 5. And the director of bands at Escambia County High, Mr. D.K. Grissett, is looking forward to the success the band will have in the future.
“From the onset, I have seen much potential from the students in the ECHS band – like diamonds in the rough. They just needed the right guidance. I thought that after being asked many times to come back home to work with the program … now was the best time. A quote by R. L. Sharpe comes to mind, ‘Isn’t it strange that princes and kings, and clowns that caper, and sawdust rings, and common people like you and me are builders of eternity. Each is given a bag of tools, a shapeless mass, or a book of rules, and each must make, ere life is flown, a stumbling block or a stepping stone.’”
Photos courtesy David Gehman Photography
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