After a year full of concerts, festivals and the beloved Disneyland trip, the band and choir held its 99th annual spring concert on Wednesday, April 26. From 7-8:30pm, students and families came to listen to music and enjoy solos from student musicians. 

The band performed a variety of songs, from 1930s jazz hits to a song from “Super Mario Bros,” ensuring that every audience member was entertained. Leadership teacher Erik Bennett even made an appearance on stage playing a clarinet solo with the jazz band, and, during intermission, the music department held a bake sale fundraiser.

“I think the music that we picked for the spring is really fun and interesting,” junior flutist Jack McMahon said. “This time, [it was] less classical and more contemporary music. And I think a lot of people really enjoy the Japanese media that it comes from.”

Like any successful concert, this spring performance required months of hard work and dedication for the band members.

“[We’ve been] rehearsing a lot, focusing on certain sections. We want to make sure we can play as cohesively as we can and make it really sound great for the audience,” junior and drum minor Ryan Dokoza said.

From the very start of the school year, the band has worked on music pieces to play at different concerts and festivals. Many of the songs they’ve been learning from the start of the year were featured at the concert.

“For jazz, especially, we got our charts at the beginning of the year. So it’s kind of a culmination of the whole year’s work,” Dokoza said.

For sophomore and trumpeter Eleanor Points, her favorite tune to perform was the theme to “Howl’s Moving Castle”.

“There’s different sections and different styles of music in it. And I think everyone really has fun playing it,” Points said.

The concert also gave student musicians a chance to showcase all the work they’ve done throughout the year, and wrap up the eventful year – especially for seniors.

“I think the spring concert is important because we commemorate the seniors and most of them have done four years of music at BHS. So it’s their last hurrah,” McMahon said. 

As students reflected on their year in the music department, many reminisced about their packed schedule of concerts and festivals, but one trip stood out in particular: Disneyland.

“I of course loved the Disney trip. That was definitely one of my favorites, and then the Play-a-Thon we had just a couple of weekends ago,” Dokoza said.

Another major highlight was the amount of new members that joined the wind ensemble this year. Since a lot of the ensemble members graduated last year, many of the new members are underclassmen.  

“It was definitely different from last year. I’m in the wind ensemble, so a lot of our new musicians are sophomores,” McMahon said. “So we’ve been kind of working with lots of different people compared to last year.”

Looking forward, the band hopes to train more new members to join through band camp, which is held a week before school.

“I’m also really excited for band camp because that’s kind of our introduction of band, and we have new people come in and join band, and we get them situated,” Points said. “And it’s a really fun time to just build a community together.”

Although this is its last school event, the band will host an end-of-year potluck on May 16 and perform at the annual Hillsborough Memorial Day Parade on May 29. The final events of the year will give the band a chance to celebrate the year and showcase even more of what they’ve learned.

“I think every single ensemble really works hard for moments like these. And it’s really special when there’s an audience and they get to witness how hard we work,” Points said. “I think all the ensembles are really hardworking, and it’s our time to show them what we can do.”