Brookland Bearcat Band

ASBA Honor Band, 2016 Tuesday night, Brookland High School Band students travelled to Searcy to compete for spots in the ASBA Honor Band. 16 students were selected, including 6 first chairs, plus 5 alternates, for a total of 21 selected:

Mark Bailey says, " Good looking group. Very focused. Good prep time usage. Nice job identifying melodies and articulation. Great start... BEAUTIFUL ensemble sound! Ok, it makes my job difficult when everything is played so nicely. The only complaint (take it with a grain of salt :-) is the trumpets were a little over balanced during the brass choir section.. The melody was in the low brass and horn. Everything else was so nice....GREAT READING! I enjoyed it.

I have never had so much fun standing in front of and conducting a band in a concert in my entire 26 year career. You people were amazing. I listened to the recordings after you left the band room Saturday evening and was so moved by Sinfonia VI that I actually welled up a little. The march made me proud and I wanted to stand and shout at the end of Variants. 

This was not the first time Brookland has made all 1's at assessment - that was in 2014. I do hope you will remember, though, that we only played TWO tunes that year because of the weather. This is the first time that we have earned all Superiors while performing the entire required 3 peices. This was also the first time that this band has ever competed by performing three grade 3 pieces. For those of you who don't know, we are only required to perform one piece of grade 2 level, leaving the other two to be grade 1 or 2.

After the concert, several people, including Mr. Ken Hatch (ASU), Dr. Bruce Faske (ASU), Dr. Sarah Labovitz and Dr. Tim Oliver, Ms. Ladonna Gibson, and others came to congratulate the band before they even knew the ratings. Mr. Steve Warner sent a text reading "Awesome concert! I am proud...of your students."

This was by far the best concert I have ever conducted and I have so many people to thank:

Mr. Tyler Worsham. I don't know how we could have gotten this all done with out him.

Mr. Monty Hill (Lyon College), Dr. Tim Oliver (ASU), Dr. Sarah Labovitz (ASU), and Steve Warner (Retired band director) for listening and working with the band and pushing us to hear, play and do things in different ways. 

Steve Warner (again) for holding me together when I was freaking out Friday night.

Ladonna Gibson (AMRO) for stepping from time to time to make comments and to also provide some glue to my spastic psyche.

Allan Cochran (booster president and band dad) for driving the truck to assessment. 

All the band family and friends who came to support us at our performance. 

I am not even going to begin to list particular students who put in work and had input on things that I was not hearing or aware of. I can't name them for fear of leaving someone out...so I will name every student:

Flute: Brent Cochran, Hailey Ratley, Zach Gibson, Winter Hicks

Oboe: Adam Baxter and Nikkolette Perkins

Bassoon: Ethan Nelms

Clarinet: Dylan Lane, Abeer Aljaad, Drew Daniels, Dylan Wallis, Taylor Mosbey, Jarred Harrison, Parker Odom, Joseph Erickson, Pamela Leonard, Colby Shortnacy

Bass Clarinet: Tyler Weaver

Alto Sax: Tyler Ballard and Ben Robison

Tenor Sax: Nathan McMinn

Baritone Sax: Ethan Scurlock

Trumpet: Zach Proctor, Jodie Seaborn, Alex White, Ben Pierce, and Daniel Pasmore

F-Horn: Olivia Langner

Trombone: Katelyn Ratley, Nathan Lamb, Jacob Scallion, Lucas Heer, Dylan Neff

Bass Trombone: Carson Woodard

Euphonium: Tim Casey and Breanna Condon

Tuba: Casey Smith, Brice Vaughn, and Amanda Tyler

Percussion: Creed Edgar, Brianna Gibson, Cynthia Hearring, Zack Rucker, Cole Layne, Leo Montgomery, Jacob Easley, Nick Gregory, and Skyler Coleman

I love you all. Thank you for making my life a little sweeter.