Making Midstate all-star band is music to their ears
Six local students represented Warren County as members of the prestigious Midstate Band in Murfreesboro this weekend. The band, sponsored annually by the Middle Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association, is composed of the best music students from across Middle Tennessee.
“This is the most ever we’ve taken from Warren County in a long time. We usually only have one or two a year,” said Warren County Middle School band director Duane Farnham.
The students, who Farnham described as the cream of the crop, are Irving College student Casey Bigford, WCMS students Francesca Freed and Kayla Young, and high school students Jesse Langston, Robert Thatch and Hannah Tilton.
To become part of the Midstate Band, these students first had to go through a rigorous audition process in early December at McGavock High School in Nashville. Judged by a pair of area band directors, they had to perform a piece of prepared music they received in September, as well as a number of other musical skills, including scales.
Farnham said an average of 1,000 high school students and 1,000 middle school students audition for the band every year. Only a third of the high school students and half of the middle school students who audition make the cut.
The ones who did make the cut for this year’s band were divided into several different bands, which held several intense practices Thursday night and Friday before performing a series of concerts yesterday at MTSU’s Tucker Theater.