Making Music at EIU

Three EPGJH music students(Tess, Amy, and Justin) took advantage of a great opportunity to play their instruments on Saturday. We piled in a CUSD #11 van at 5:45AM and even though everyone was sleepy, we were excited about what the day might hold. (I might have been the most excited of all!) The event was the EIU Middle School Honor Band Festival.

A lot of neat things happen at EIU on an honor band day. For example our students had to prepare for a concert, but they hadn't seen the music yet! What a test of their musical fortitude! After they began looking up from their music stands they also got to meet and play for two very well-known conductor/composers.

Pierre LaPlante and Larry Daehn served as clinicians for the day teaching our young musicians all kind of neat things. These two men are giants in the music education world because they have given us such great music to play with our developing bands.

After many hours of rehearsals, a chamber music concerts, and a lot of pizza, our students took the stage along with over 140 other musicians to perform a fantastic concert in the beautiful Doudna Fine Arts Center. The place was standring room only! After the concert(and a standing oviation!) the composers sat in the lobby signing things and taking pictures. I even got my pictures with these two great educators. I grew up playing their music so what a treat for me as well.

The students had a good time and had plenty to talk about afterwards. I hope to continue taking students to these types of events. Not only is it educational, but it's also a lot of fun. Just ask the students about the "red room".

- Mr. F

A short video clip of the 8th Grade Honor Band(not great quality)

The full band on stage and Tess talking with composer, Larry Daehn.

EPG Jazz Saxophonist Among the Best in Illinois

Junior tenor saxophonist Andrew Durham recently spent two days in downtown Peoria playing music with the best HS jazzers in Illinois. When you ask him about the experience, he speaks of how humbling it was to be there and how he knows he'll have to work hard to get back next year. He also just said "awesome" a lot.

Andrew was selected to perform as the lead tenor in the Illinois Music Educators All-State Jazz Band. The road to this concert was long. He started preparing the music last April when Mr. Freesen put the audition tune in front of the Jazz Ensemble. In October, he auditioned at the district level where he was named lead tenor and was a featured sololist for District 3. In early December, he was informed that he would be making the trip to Peoria for the All-State Conference which is the highest level honor group in the state.

The group spent many hours a day rehearsing with fantastic clinicians. During the breaks, the students wouldn't even stop playing! All the hard work paid off for the students at Jazz Night. On Friday, the students rehearsed on the Civic Center Theatre stage and then performed there later that night for a huge crowd. The audience was enthusiastic about the performances by all the participating students who come from programs all over Illinois.

"I was honored to take a student to the festival this year. This was the first time the EPG schools have sent a student to the conference for instrumental music and it couldn't have been a better student-musician than Andrew. We will work hard and hopefully have more students get to experience this in the future."-Mr. F
(Article originally appeared on http://www.unit11.org/)

An Invasion!

Recognize these fine collegiates?

As we all know college break last a little longer than its HS counterpart. At the beginning of January a bunch of the graduating class of 2008 returned to join the band for a pep band performance.

The amazing thing was that I had no clue they were planning this, however the high school band didn't seem to shocked...

Anyway it was nice to get to catch up with how college life is treating them. It's nice to know that almost all of them are participating in college ensembles. You know it didn't hurt the big sounds of the El Paso-Gridley Pep Band either!

Thanks alumni and have a great rest of your freshman year! Keep us posted on all your successes.

Here's some more pictures from that game