Band students Kate Willams, Ramy Afzalianmand, Guillaume Saaty, Mitchel Williams and Allegra Knight attended honor bands in January.

Oklahoma Baptist University Honor Band

The 2015 OBU Honor Band Clinic was held on January 5-6 on OBU campus. The high school director was Brian Britt, athletic band director at the University of Oklahoma. The junior high director was Toye Harris, Director of Bands at Miami Public Schools. Freshman Kate Williams and junior Ramy Afzalianmand attended the clinic for their first time, while seniors Guillaume Saaty attended for his second year and Mitchel Williams for his third.

“It was definitely an experience I would take away from there cause one you get to work with somebody that is a higher band director and you learn a lot of pointers you don’t get from Harding and different teaching styles so that was really interesting and fun,” Kate said. She said she plans to use the new techniques learned at the clinic to help her advance in her own band.

Kate enjoyed being exposed to new sounds and instruments in the honor band.  “We did this really cool piece where we used a slinky  and [Harris] stretched it out and she put a microphone to it and the progression would sling it and sounded kind of like a laser so I thought that was really cool,” she said.

“I think it’s a really cool to just to have the opportunity to meet other musicians around the state that have the same passion as you do just to come together, and that’s really cool,” Saaty said. “You always learn something new being under different clinicians because each teacher has something different to teach.”

Afzalianmand learned how to practice in more efficient ways, as well as how challenging it can be to practice for over nine hours in just two days. “I learned techniques on how to tackle parts of pieces,” he said.  “I feel like I preformed pretty well. Something that’s cool about that band is . . . the level of performers that you’re around kind of makes you want to preform better yourself,” Saaty added.

“I liked it a lot. I like OBU because it’s somewhere in between CODA and something easier like an all city band,” Mitchel said. He said he also enjoyed being accompanied by his friends Saaty and Afzalianmand.

The concert was performed in Raley Chapel at OBU at 6:30pm for their friends, families and band directors.

Central Oklahoma Director’s Association Regional Honor Band

The 2015 CODA Clinic was held at the University of Oklahoma in the Catlett Music Center on January 8-9 . The Wind Ensemble clinician was Steven Davis from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the clinician from the Symphonic Band was Marc Mueller from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. Knight sat second chair oboe in the Wind Ensemble and  Mitchel Williams was third chair bass clarinet in the Symphonic Band.

Director Kelli Taylor  was pleased with their performance. This was the first time for HCP to have two students play in the CODA band.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these two students. They are so talented, but also have a strong work ethic,” Taylor said. “That hard work paid off, and both Allegra and Mitchel got to learn some great literature and work under fantastic clincians.”

Although Knight earned first chair in the Wind Ensemble last year, her placement in second chair was not a disappointment. “Because I played second oboe so I felt like I played better as a second player. I learned how balance better,” she said.

Those who made CODA competed with hundreds of players in November from the central part of Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City and its suburbs. The students rehearsed at OU for nearly 10 hours.  Knight described her experience as challenging but she enjoyed her time in the group. Knight has been in the CODA band all four years of high school.

This was Mitchel’s first time playing with the CODA band. He was prepared for the challenge. “I can go into OBU not having practiced and I can feel comfortable because I know that no one else has practiced, but with CODA it’s like a state level, it’s a really high level band and there is a completely different expectation of skill level and how you participate in the band,” he said.