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Brown, Jana Eementary School Advanced Band Students Win First Place at Six Flags Music Festival
For the fourth year in a row, the advanced band students from Brown and Jana elementary schools in the Hazelwood School District received a first place score at the Six Flags Music Festival.
The band, comprised of 42 students, scored better than two high school bands, 13 middle school bands and one other elementary school band. Many of the students started playing two years ago and six members started playing an instrument just this school year.
Brown fifth grader Sabrina Chuc, who plays the flute, explained how she felt about winning.
“It feels exciting because we’ve been practicing a lot,” she said. “I like playing the flute because you can learn different types of music and you can play higher notes than everyone else.”
Classmate Malik Cameron, who plays percussion, explained how it felt to win first place, knowing he and his bandmates played better than many other schools with older students.
“I feel I have accomplished a lot of good things because I was taught how to play early,” said Cameron. “I went to Six Flags last year too. It feels great to win first place two years in a row. I like all of the instruments in the percussion section and learning all of the notes.”
According to the three judges at the festival, the band earned four perfect scores in rhythm and one perfect score in musicality. They also played with tone quality, intonation and technique rated excellent to superior. Music teacher Bill Volk directs the band.
“The band has played several songs over the course of the school year and prepared three for the festival,” Volk said. “The first song was a warm-up selection, ‘Legends,’ by Sandy Feldstein and Larry Clark in concert C minor. Next, they performed a traditional march, ‘Fighting Falcon March’ by Todd Stalter and ended with ‘Energy’ by James Curnow in concert F minor.”
“It feels like I’ve triumphed and it feels like a big lump has been lifted from our backs now that we won,” said Jana fifth grade student George Ziama, who plays trombone. “I feel like I can control the whole band and I feel happy when I play the trombone.”
“Winning feels good, considering I’m in elementary school,” said classmate Dalia Rimawi. She plays the clarinet. “I like playing the new songs the most, I like how they sound.”
Rimawi and Ziama said they intend to remain in band through high school while Cameron and Chuc said they hope to play in band at least through middle school.
To reward the students, Volk and a few parent volunteers brought healthy snacks and juice to Jana Elementary School before classes began. After they finished eating, Volk played a recording of their performance for them to watch.
“That performance was a thing of beauty,” he said. “If people had just listened to you play, they never would have guessed they heard an elementary school band!
“They have really learned how to develop that true band sound,” Volk said. “They read music very well, they have trained themselves to listen more closely, how to tune their instruments effectively and to watch the band director. It has been great to watch and listen to these students improve on their instruments these past two years. They improved their skills, their appreciation of music and how to bring the music to life.”
