We attended our daughter's holiday band concert last night. She's a freshman at my wife's alma mater - I graduated from a high school in a small town south of Wichita.
Most of my "interaction" with my daughter's school so far this year has been through her being in band, although I've certainly shared some heated e-mails with her teachers, which is another story best left for another time. My high school had what I still consider to be a band of above-average talent, both during marching and concert band season. So it was with great anticipation that I attended the school's second home football game (we were out of town for the first one), to witness first-hand the awesome power of a big-city marching band playing in a big-city football venue.
On a perfect night for football, the stadium held MAYBE 100 spectators, evenly mixed between parents of band members and football players. It's possible that the marching band outnumbered the 47 players on the home side of the field. The band performed three songs that first game - The national anthem, the school fight song, and as halftime entertainment, "Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. To say the performance was underwhelming would be an understatement, and through the marching band season, it never really improved, either musically or technically. But I cut them some slack because they were young, and they SEEMED sincere in their efforts.
So, last night, we attended the holiday concert. No programs at the door - the band director's decided to "go green" and save paper. Probably a prudent choice, since there was maybe 100 people in the audience in an auditorium that must seat at least 800.
The concert led off with the school's jazz band, who performed a couple acceptable numbers, neither of which I had ever heard before. The evening showed promise, only 5 minutes in.
The string orchestra took the stage. Had they been merciful, they would have taken the stage and ran with it, instead of sitting down on it and inflicting 10 minutes of aural cruelty upon those in attendance. The allegedly performed a Kabelevsky prelude, and two selections from the Nutcracker. Now we know what REALLY killed Tchaikovsky - this performance. I don't think two instruments were tuned correctly. The director appeared to be trying to get it over with as quickly as possible. I videotaped one of their selections and am TEMPTED to put it on youtube...but I just can't bring myself to punish others.
And then, the concert band took the stage, the girls in a hodge-podge of black skirts, black slacks, black skirts OVER black slacks, the boys in ill-fitting trousers with their dress shirts untucked and unbuttoned. The director evidently doesn't have enough respect for the audience to make his band members DRESS THEMSELVES CORRECTLY. I'm not expecting concert-formal, but TUCK IN YOUR SHIRTS, YOU BURGER-PICKIN' SLOBS!
The music? Not bad -- a contest/performance piece, Rudolph the Red and Adeste Fideles. The trumpets over-played, but everyone was mostly in tune, and it was just disappointing that they only prepared three songs of less than 8 minutes total. The concert was over in a half hour, and that's factoring in two changes of bands.
The director thanked us for coming, said something about "don't forget to tip your waiters", and the band left the stage. I know this teacher's young, but show a little respect for your audience. I know that my band director, Mr. Powers, would have cuffed this guy upside the ear and told him how to run a band program in a correct manner. I know I wish I could...
