By Maggie Dale

At the Mount Vernon Festival of Bands, the sixth, seventh, eighth, high school, and jazz bands performed showcasing the musical progression through the grades. Under the direction of Scott Weber and Elise Rodenberg on Feb. 27, each band took turns performing the songs all of their hard work has gone into.  The finale was the “William Tell Overture,” presented by the entire school.  

“This concert is special because it’s all of the bands together, so the sixth grade plays their songs and then we move

through all of the grades so it kind of introduces all of the parents to the different grade levels and how we progress,” said junior Nicole Homrighausen.

When asked how the band prepared, sophomore Reilly Gross said, “I practiced in class and a little bit outside of class, and we took the songs step by step. We practiced ‘The Machine Awakes’ early on in the year, but then ‘Lightning Field’ we just started practicing this second semester.”

Senior Becky Fishbein added, “We practiced every day in class, and started after our first concert.”

“I like this concert because I get to hear the younger people and see how well they’ve done so far,” continued Fishbein. “‘Lightning Field’ is my favorite song we played because it has a lot of cool sounds in it and sounds like a thunderstorm.”

Gross agreed, saying, “‘Lightning Field’ is my favorite because it sounds like you’re in the Wizard of Oz movie, so it kind of feels like you’re in a different world!”

Overall, the Festival of Bands concert was a big success. The bleachers in the gym were overflowing, and the taco bar fundraiser before the concert raised $2000 for the Mount Vernon Marching Mustangs.