The SBU (Southwest Baptist University) Honor Band is a band made up of high school students in the surrounding area. Band directors in the area send in students names that they want to be in the honor band, from there they are randomly selected to be in the band or not.
Honor Band only takes place in one day, and during that day the students play a musical piece that they haven’t heard before with a group of people that they aren’t familiar with. These pieces can be difficult, making it tricky to play with the other students without prior chemistry.
The students who are participating in the honor band get the music the day of. Taylor Waltz (10) said, “You do not get any music or anything until you get there so we have just been practicing a lot of scales and rhythms to prepare for learning the music in less than a day.”
There are a total of 100 students and 19 different schools represented for the tryouts. Although they bring together this many kids, it’s not a competition. There’s only one band with all the nominated kids. It’s labeled as a festival rather than a competition.
Natalie Palomo, the band director, said, “This year we have 9 participating. Eli Sanders (12), Jaiden Straw (12), Anderson Teaster (10), Wyatt Barber (11), Harlynn Irvine (10), Andrew McGuire (10), Waylon Wright (12), Weston Wright (9), and Taylor Waltz (10).”
Sanders and Straw both play the clarinet. Teaster on the alto sax, Barber on the tenor sax, and Wright on the bari sax. Irvine and McGuire play the trumpet. Weston plays the trombone and Waltz plays percussion.
On the day of honor band is an all day event. Taylor explained, “It starts at about 8 in the morning and our concert with the music we get that day starts at 5 in the evening.”
At the end of the day, a concert was performed by the honor band. The band played two fast pieces and two slow pieces, which created diversity in their band and for the audience to listen to. This can cause more difficulty for the students to learn four pieces in a day that all vary in tempo and beat.
The SBU Honor Band took place on February 7th, 2026. Where the students spent the whole day practicing new pieces that all vary in style. The honor band has many students from all over the surrounding area and the Fair Grove High School Band had nine students participate in this event.
