The All Island fifth-sixth grade “B” band faced a test on Thursday night on the stage of the high school Performing Arts Center. Conductor Zach Tileston held up his baton for a moment longer than usual, prolonging the pause before the final note of Barnum and Bailey’s circus march. The young musicians held their instruments in front of their lips, eyes trained on the conductor and not a single note was played during the unexpected pause.
“That was their MCAS of music,” Mr. Tileston told the crowd at the end of the song. “And they passed.”
While the All-Island Band spring concert wasn’t really a test, the musicians all received outstandings for their performances. The band, which includes over 200 fourth through eighth graders, was one of the first all-Island programs for kids, beginning before current director Julie Schilling arrived on the Island in the 1980s. Ms. Schilling has been working with the All-Island Band for 20 years and teaching on the Island for 36 years. Students join in fourth grade, selecting an instrument and attending lessons at their individual schools. Ms. Schilling said as the years go on, students show an interest in different instruments.
“I don’t remember ever teaching a tuba player, I’m excited to have two players now,” said Ms. Schilling.
Both tuba players are in the fifth-sixth “B” band. The spring concert put all levels of skill on display, Ms. Schilling said she organized the show to take the audience on the same journey as the young musicians.
“This is a great concert, it shows where they start and where they finish,” she said. “Eighth grade parents out there, I’m sure you remember when your kids were just starting out.”
The night opened with the Jazz Band, a select group of 20 students who practice an additional night every week. Dressed in all black, the band looked as slick as they sounded.
Eighth grade saxophonist Jaiden Edelman soloed in Harlem Nocturne, and he took the audience on a slinky stroll down the dark alleyways of a noir film before the rest of the brass joined in.
In Moondance the baritone saxophones did a little call-and-response and the band also took on Chameleon.
“You have to have a lot of maturity for [Chameleon] not to be a train-wreck, as we call it in band,” said Ms. Schilling.
After the most accomplished of the young musicians took the stage, those just starting out took their turn. A carefully played “Hot Cross Buns” had only a few squeaks and everyone ended, more or less, on the same note.
One of the more difficult songs was a round: Sweetly Sings A Donkey.
“It’s very hard to play a song and hear that song a couple seconds later,” Ms. Schilling said. “This is what were going to attempt. I mean that is what we’re going to perform,” Ms. Schilling said to laughter from the audience.
After closing their performance with We Will Rock You, one boy stood, his arms raised in the air victoriously with his fist clamped around his flute.
After the fifth-sixth grade “B” band finished their set with a patriotic medley, they were joined by the seventh-eighth band for the Star Wars main theme.
“They keep bringing out more Star Wars, so we get to keep playing it,” said Ms. Schilling.
The seventh-eighth “A” band closed the night starting with a rowdy western, navigating the tricky transitions of a West Side Story medley and bopping through the pop hit Best Day of My Life.
Though the spring concert is the last big performance of the year, the bands are far from finished and director Ruth Scudere-Chapman urged the audience to stay tuned. She looked back at the students fondly.
“They started off as kids playing instruments and I’m so proud of them,” she said. “They grew into young musicians.”
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