The Santa Rita Band Department

When most people think of a band they think of a bunch of kids playing elementary school songs. But to the many teens in the programs, it’s much more complicated.

Santa Rita High School is proud to say that they have excellent concert, marching and jazz bands. All of these bands have performed well in concerts and competitions. I have been in the marching and concert band for two years now and I couldn’t be more pleased. Last year was a rough year for all of us, but this year was awesome thanks to our new director.

Mr. Mike May has been a band blessing. He came here straight from the University of Arizona and has done a wonderful job. He was also a student teacher at Sahuaro High School before coming to Santa Rita. He is young, enthusiastic and just what our music program needs. He teaches all of the instrumental music programs and also puts in overtime when the fine arts department constructs our annual musical. But enough about the teacher, the programs are great too!

The marching band was at every single one of the football games. We had fun and we were supportive of our team, but that’s not all. Marching band, I feel, isn’t all about the games, those are just like practices. The competitions are what people like me live for. And the 2003-2004 school year was good to us. We missed the State Marching Competition by a small two points. But next year we will be more prepared and have an enthusiastic new group of freshmen.

The concert band has done quite well this year as well. We have had three concerts this year and have been to the Regional Ensemble Festival. Although we couldn’t go for a score because of ineligibility, we would have received an Excellent as our rating. Our last concert was May 4^Th and we were glad to see that many of our peers came to see how we’ve grown.

The jazz band did very well this year too. I understand that they have had three concerts and have gone to a Regional Jazz Festival. They happened to also score very high at their festival. They have worked very hard this year and Santa Rita is very proud of them.

All of the different sections of our band department have come very far in just a few short years. The bands were never really the same after Mr. Veres left, but we’ve done very well since. And as I will be leaving soon I want to thank everybody for making this a fantastic experience for me. I just hope that future generations will do the same in keeping the music flowing for the rest of the Santa Rita High School students. Thank you and God bless.

Written by,

Amanda Hess

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