1,500 Students Make Beautiful Music Together

Although it was billed as more than a competition, the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Assn.’s music festival was as much about earning top honors as it was about fine-tuning music skills.

A total of 28 Southern California school concert bands and orchestras participated in the festival Friday and Saturday at Oxnard’s Channel Islands High School.

“A competition is just that, a competition,” said 14-year-old Beth Mays, a flutist with the Simi Valley High School concert band. “Even though we’re supposed to be just competing with ourselves, it shows everybody that we’re good and that we’ve done well.”

More than 1,500 students participated in the event after spending months rehearsing the arrangements they performed in front of a three-judge panel of music professionals.

Instead of pitting the bands and orchestras against one another, the judges rated each band and gave them critiques of their performance.

“For the kids, I think the gratification and satisfaction comes from knowing they’ve done the best they can do,” said Gary Engels, music director for Channel Islands High School. “After this, they really have a feeling of accomplishment.”

The judges gave the Channel Islands High School band a superior rating for their renditions of numbers including the “Sea Gate Overture” and “Adagio.”

“We worked really hard for this,” said 17-year-old Gina De Los Rey, a clarinet player in the Channel Islands High School band. “We’re all really happy about it.”

In addition to Channel Islands, Moorpark, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley high schools walked away with superior ratings. Schools that received superior grades will be invited to participate in the regional competition to be held in San Diego in May.