Christmas time is a time full of joy, and the Fair Grove High School Band is filling it up with music. Every year, they perform a Christmas Concert to celebrate the season and share the tidings of joy with everyone else.  They performed the pieces God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Santa, White Christmas, and A Fantasy of Carols.  Natalie Palomo, the current Band Director, said, “My personal favorite part was the piece ‘Santa,’ because it was just such a different arrangement than what we normally play, and really gave the kids a chance to explore different effects of their playing in a piece.”

The Band had to prepare long and hard for this concert. Not all of the songs were easy to play, and they had to practice a lot. Palomo commented, “The band rehearsed during class each day, plus the kids are expected to practice individually outside of class…that may not always happen though. We would work on sections of pieces that needed some work, as well as running through the songs all the way to build up their endurance.”

As Mrs. Palomo said, the students had to prepare for the concert on their own time as well. Sydney Dame (11), a saxophone player for the band, added, “I prepared by taking time and practicing all my music at home. Also as an ensemble we practiced by rehearsing our music everyday in class which is about an hour, five days a week.”

The band performed on December 17, at 7:00, and the concert lasted about 1 hour. They even marched out with the color guard to start the concert out with a bang. Sydney stated, “I thought the concert went pretty well. We played a lot of new music that we haven’t had a chance to play and I thought they all sounded really good. My favorite part was playing White Christmas because the song sounded really good. Also I had a solo throughout the whole song where I carried the main melody of the song which I enjoyed a lot because it was a really neat experience.”