Waco High students make all-region band

By Sandi Horton

I admit I’ve become a daily user of Facebook. It’s a quick way to find out what’s going on in Waco and with my friends all over the country. I love seeing the photos posted by friends and organizations. Today I saw a great photo of high school musicians posted by Waco Independent School District. The students seemed to be bursting with pride and confidence that comes from hard work to achieve a goal. It was obvious to me these students are excellent role models for young musicians.

I immediately read the text with the photo to discover these nine Waco High students had competed in the local region band try-outs to secure the coveted chairs in Region Band. Since I spent four years of my life as a band and orchestra director and many more years as a private flute instructor, I understand the remarkable accomplishment of these students. They worked months on extremely difficult music to compete with other students in the TMEA (Texas Music Educators Association) Region 8. This is a large music region that includes 80 school districts from College Station to Lampasas to Meridian to Corsicana and every school district in between.

Waco High sent 27 of its best band students to the Region 8 competition, nine came out on top. Of those nine students, four will advance to the state ‘area’ try-outs on January 8. Each ‘area’ is composed of four regions. The best players from 4 regions will have another 'area' try-out to determine who makes the All State Band – one of the highest honors a band student can achieve. The All State Band performs for thousands of music educators, musicians, and family in San Antonio every Feb. at the TMEA conference. Maybe a WHS student will be in the All State Band Concert this year.

Here are the names of the WHS students as it was posted on Facebook:

• Edith Gonzalez, (Bb clarinet)-4A Area Wind Symphony
• Andrew Brenner, (tuba)-4A Area Symphonic Band
• Jordan Blair, (tuba)-4A Area Concert Band
• Helen Hoover, (oboe)-4A Area Concert Band
• Sterling Long, (trombone)-Wind Symphony
• Micah Weaver, (trombone)-Symphonic Band
• Kurt Kranz, (percussion)-Symphonic Band
• Erik Kranz, (trombone)-Concert Band
• Zazil Pacheco, (alto sax)-Concert Band

Scott Stulir is the Waco High Band Director. Cameron Akin and Kayla Nelson are associate band directors.

      Email    Print