Bayfield High School's Performing Arts Center hosted school bands and choirs from around the area on April 21 for the Colorado High School Activities Association Southwestern Regional Large Group Music Festival competitions.
Twelve bands and six choirs were scheduled to participate. They performed for a panel of judges and received ratings of 1 (superior) through 5 (unprepared). The BHS Concert Band received a 2 rating, and the choir received a 1. They are judged against criteria rather than each other.
After each band played its selections, one of the judges took the podium to talk to the young musicians about factors in their rating, such as hitting starting notes all together without being tenuous.
Students in the band that played before BHS were asked, first for just the trumpets to play one note, then the entire band. Then they were asked to do it with eyes closed, so they would hear each other. Their first try was very tentative. The next try and each successive try was better.
The BHS trumpet players were coached to produce a sharp, bold first note. "Don't hold back," the judge told them. He also advised the BHS players that there were times when their precision wasn't what it should be.
BHS Music Director Derek Smith said the bands, choirs, and orchestras are rated on a rubric in 14 categories (rhythm, intination, balance and so on) and from those scores get a Roman numeral rating from I (superior) to V (unprepared). Three judges listen to the performance, and their scores are combined for an overall rating.
The BHS choir got ratings from the three judges of I, I, and II for an overall rating of I (superior). "We were the highest rated choir of the day," Smith said.
The BHS band got scores of II, II, and II, for an overall of II (excellent). Durango got I, I, and I while Cortez got I, I, and II.
Bands do not really go "head to head," but look at their performance in those 14 categories as a group, Smith said. "They also do a sight reading portion, where music is handed out, we look at it for six minutes, and then play it for the first time ever in front of a judge. BHS had the only choir and band to score a I in sight reading!"
