Final band concerts are always slightly bittersweet events for Laura Eilers, band teacher, but this year will be special.
The Lake City Secondary School - Williams Lake Campus will be hosting a full-capacity live musical final concert open to the public the evening of June 15.
Some of the students graduating will have been with the program for years and are some of the strongest players.
But all the students have worked hard to prepare and there will be a broad range of pieces.
“This is going to be a concert not to be missed,” Eilers told the Tribune.
One song, Mekong, includes an array of water fountains, sounds of cannons and helicopters.
“It’s very dramatic,” said Eilers.
The performance will feature solos by some of the band students graduating this year. The graduating musicians can choose a solo they then work on all year and they can perform at the final show wearing their chosen graduation outfits as well.
“It’s a nice tradition to be able to do that for them,” said Eilers.
Some band grads from 2021 will return in order to participate in the massed band performance of a very special song.
The band program hired renowned composer Robert Buckley to write a piece for the school. He composed a piece he calls Sunlight Dancing.
For two years the group has been working on the project.
Robert Buckley will be leading a workshop for the group before the concert and then performing on stage as well.
The show will feature the Senior Concert Band, Senior Tour Band, Senior Jazz Band, and Concert Band 8.
This will be the first concert open to the public and with full capacity for the band program since the pandemic.
While the band program has dropped in numbers of new young players during Covid, she said most of the senior students have stuck with it.
“We’re hoping we’re going to rebound here in the next couple years,” said Eilers.
Alto saxophonist Alannah Aggiss is in Grade 11 and said this show has a lot more pieces than the last concert. Aggiss said music has always been in her family and both her siblings played alto saxophone as well. She hopes to continue with music after she graduates.
“Band in general feels like a family,” she said, of the program. “”It’s fun. It’s a way to hang out with people and enjoy hobbies you all have an interest in, and music is one of ours.”
Koen Vogt, a Grade 12 trumpet musician will be graduating and has chosen The Trumpeter’s Lullaby as his solo piece for the final concert.
He and Aggiss described the piece as very peaceful sounding, well-harmonized piece.
But it is also “technical, which makes it a good challenge,” said Vogt.
Vogt is currently in five bands and plans to continue with music after he graduates this year. He said playing in a band allows you to know when to step back and let someone else shine when it’s their time and when it’s your time to step up and shine.
These musicians will all have a chance to shine for the Massed Band featuring about 70 musicians playing the finale.
The show will take place at the Lake City Secondary - WL Campus for the final concert on June 15, 2022. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., concert will start at 7 p.m. The concert is open to the public and admission is by donation.
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