Last week, approximately 650 students from Lubbock ISD, Lubbock-Cooper ISD, Plainview ISD, and Frenship ISD competed in the Middle School All-Region Band Competition. All-Region Band is a competition through the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) and is the first round of the All-State process for high school. At the middle school level, there is only one round of auditions that functions to teach students about the process and recognize student achievement. 

The middle school band students individually performed a set of music, called Etudes, as well as Scales, which are fundamental tenets of music The students are then ranked and approximately the top 1/3 of each section were awarded the title of Region Band Audition Winner" and a place in one of the three region bands.  

This year, Frenship excelled at the competition, and of the 218 students who are now Audition Winners, 37% of those are Frenship ISD students. This is the highest percentage of any district represented in the All-Region bands.  

“We are extremely proud of all our students who prepared the music and auditioned this year,” stated Bridgett Parson, the Alcove Trails Middle School Band Director. “The level of difficulty of music that they had to learn, combined with all the other demands of their time like academics and athletics, meant that our students had to manage their time and be organized.” 

All four middle school band directors stated they were proud of the hard work the students put in this semester. The students showed the directors just how talented they’ve become by not only learning difficult audition music but also by balancing the different styles of music for various performances around the same time of the audition process.  

While it is an honor to be selected for the All-Region band, Roel Sanchez, the Terra Vista Middle School Band Director, stated there are several benefits simply from auditioning. They use the All-Region audition material as a benchmarking tool to improve the skills and overall performance ability of the students. This helps them work to learn more difficult, challenging, and fun music with the students' improved acquired skill levels. 

“By working to improve student performance on the individual level we improve the overall ability of the entire group” stated Sanchez. “Through this process, we hope to instill in the students that winning isn't really a goal worth having in the long term, but learning how to work diligently towards a goal over a long period of time is.” 

Next week, the students will join those from the other districts and form one big band, with just a day and a half rehearsal to prepare for a concert. This is a special event that happens each year, and they bring in directors to conduct and rehearse the band from all over the state.  

The performance will be particularly special this year, the Region has commissioned a piece for the Region Band to perform as a world premiere. The piece is written in memoriam of Frenship ISD’s Robyn Judd, a former band director at Frenship Middle School, who was killed in a car crash a few years ago. 

Congratulations to all the Frenship students who were selected for the TMEA All-Region Middle School Band!