On May 7th, band directors Elise Allen and Trent Henderson, with fellow director Chris Ryles performed their Spring Concert with the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade bands to a full house at the Baldwin High School Performing Arts Theater. This comes just weeks after the announcement that BCDS Music Educators had won their 7th consecutive "Best Communities for Music Education" award from the National Association of Music Merchants.
Both band directors have only been at Oak Hill Middle School for a few years combined, but both agree that they've seen a major difference in the Baldwin District from other places they've taught at. "Support for the arts from the top down is a huge difference," Allen said, "I haven't had that at other places, or haven't to this extent."
"Everything we do in music builds on something else. Something that we're playing this semester probably resembles something we did in the first semester. Everything in music builds on something else."
Henderson added that the vital importance of music education is to impart that building of knowledge and strength of discipline that students can take with them. "We hope some of the doctors and lawyers and plumbers and electricians and school teachers will carry that with them to impart that success upon their students and their children," Henderson said.
Allen said that the Spring and Winter concerts are an opportunity to see the full breadth of progress that the students have been making in small increments over the course of their studies. "We're just so proud of the success that our students have had this year. They've made a lot of progress!"
Scroll down for further photos from the Oak Hill Middle Band of the Braves Spring Concert.