Mountain Brook High students place in All-State Band

 

Congratulations to the following MBHS band students who won a position in the All-State Band by virtue of their auditions last Saturday, January 26th at Homewood Middle School.

Reese Williams (French Horn)  1st place in the district

Rhys Reynolds (String bass) 1st place in the district

Daniel Bolus (Alto Sax) 2nd place in the district

Ben Webster (French Horn) 4th place in the district

Julia Lott (Trumpet) 4th place in the district

Laura Semmes (Contra-Alto Clarinet) 2nd in the district and alternate place 

 

Also congratulations to Adam Thomas, 8th grade MBJH, (trombone), who placed 1st in the district for the middle school All-State band. 

The following MBHS band students also scored high enough in the auditions to be placed in the District All-State Honor Band: 

Reese Williams (French Horn) 1st chair

Rhys Reynolds (String bass) 1st chair

Daniel Bolus (Alto Saxophone) 2nd chair

Ben Webster (French Horn) 4th chair

Julia Lott (Trumpet) 4th chair

Nichole Edge (Flute) 9th chair

Tianyi Liu (Trombone) 11th chair

Rafi Goldsmith (Percussion) 7th chair

 

The following MBJH band students scored high enough in the auditions to be placed in the District All-State Middle School Honor Band: 

Adam Thomas (Trombone)  1st chair

Laine Alby (Flute) 3rd chair

Christina Xing (clarinet) 13th chair

Robert Dillard (Tuba and a 7th grader) 8th chair

Bradley Jenkins (Trumpet) 15th chair

 

These students had to prepare and audition on the most rigorous individual musical assessment administered by the Alabama Bandmasters Association.  The students who made the cut for the All-State Bands will move on in April to audition again in Huntsville for placement in one of the three high school All-State bands and one middle school band that combines students from all 8 districts of Alabama.  We are in district IV which is Jefferson and Shelby counties and is the most difficult district in the state in which to make All-State Band.  We actually tied for 4th place in the district with the Alabama School of Fine Arts for most students to make the High School All-State cut.

 

Pelham HS was 2nd with 9 students and Oak Mtn. was 1st with 12 students.  Both of these programs as well as other OTM schools that had fewer students than us to make All-State have considerably more band students in their programs than we do and have true feeder programs starting with 6th beginner band in their middle schools. This means that while the number of students we have may be much less than other programs, the individual quality is very high and is partly the result of the team teaching structure that provides the hours per day of one-of-one instruction that our students receive from the band directors and adjunct faculty.