Azle High School Band

High School Bands Earn Sweepstakes - April 2007

Recently the Azle High School Band participated in the annual UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest. The event was held at AHS, and included 16 concert bands from schools in the region. Each year the UIL hires three adjudicators to evaluate the band’s prepared music, and three more adjudicators to evaluate the band’s ability to perform music that has never before been seen by the students. The “sight-reading” portion of the competition involves the unveiling of brand new music, it then allows for an eight-minute period of time for the director to guide the students through the piece (without actually rehearsing it), and finally concludes with a performance of the piece.

All three of Azle’s concert Bands earned the top rating in their prepared music. “This is the 2nd year in a row that all of our bands have earned the top score in their stage performances,” commented assistant director Darrin Duff. “All 3 bands were up to the challenge.

The 3rd band performed “The Royal Scepter” by Howeth, “Encanto” by Smith, and “The Knights of Dunvegan” by Meyer. The 2nd band performed “Coast Guard March” by King, “Australian Up-Country Tune” by Grainger, and “Symphonic Dance #3”by Clifton Williams. “The dance was quite challenging”, said French Horn player Cecelia Miller. “It had a great French horn part and was y favorite”. The 1st band performed “Florentiner March” by Fucik, “Jupiter” from the planets, and “Polka and Fugue” from Schwanda, by Weinberger.

The superior ratings in concert and sight-reading, combined with Azle’s superior rating in UIL marching, complete the “trifectorate” in UIL band competition, resulting in a UIL Sweepstakes Award.