On Sunday, March 6, H.B. Whitehorne Middle School’s Anna Konrad-Parisi and Max Handler were among 150 students in grades seven through nine who performed at the North Jersey School Music Association Region Honors Band Concert. In order to be accepted to the ensemble, students had to learn a myriad of scales, perform selections from a solo and sight-read music they have never seen before. The auditions are incredibly competitive yet Konrad-Parisi and Handler were the top two scorers on baritone saxophone.
The ensemble performed four very challenging pieces of music and had a lot of responsibility. As the director of the band noted, the student’s job was to learn their part at home and then come to rehearsal to learn all of the other parts.
Brian Michalowski, the students’ band teacher at HBW, notes that “some of the hardest working young musicians do not get accepted to this group. Anna and Max should really be proud of their work before the audition in addition to preparing for the concert.”
