McLean HS Chamber Winds Attend Music for All National Festival

By Tracy Strelser

The excitement continues to build for the McLean Highlander High School Bands Program. In December, they were awarded the prestigious 2017 Sudler Flag of Honor by the John Philip Sousa Foundation. This honor has been bestowed twice on the school, which is quite tremendous considering being honored once is an amazing feat.

To compliment that award, the Marching Band finished first place in the 2016 and 2017 US Bands Championship, and performed at both the Fairfax County School Board and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meetings, where they were officially recognized.

The news keeps getting better. This month, under the devoted and lovely Associate Director of Bands, Deidra Denson, the talented and melodious Chamber Winds have been invited to perform at the 2018 Music for All National Festival, presented by Yamaha. This is the nation’s most prestigious festival for scholastic musical ensembles.

The 27th annual Festival will take place in Indianapolis, IN, on March 15-17, 2018. United Airlines is advertising fares as low as $181, making right now a great time to visit Indianapolis and watch McLean literally wake up a town famously nicknamed, Naptown, by blues singer Leroy Carr in 1929.

The Chamber Winds was hand-picked to perform by a panel of esteemed music educators and conductors by blind recorded audition. “Our acceptance into the festival is especially meaningful given that the chamber program has only been in existence for three years,” said Denson.

McLean High School Chamber Winds is one of 71 high school and middle school chamber ensemble, choir, orchestra, concert band, and percussion ensembles from across the nation selected to perform at the 2018 Festival. They will perform in concert, be evaluated by renowned music educators, and participate in master classes and special events.

“One of the distinguishing characteristics of chamber music is that each person is the sole player on any given part. In other words, every student is a soloist. There is basically no way to cover up a mistake. Therefore, the level of achievement the kids strive for is very high,” said Denson. “I am beyond proud that we have a group of students at McLean, who are willing and able to showcase their musical abilities in such an exposed way.”

The students have been working diligently for several months to perfect their individual and ensemble skills. In January, the group participated in a mini-camp with specialists on their instruments. Chamber Wind students also had the fortunate opportunity to perform in a masterclass with Alex Klein, Principal Oboe Emeritus of the Chicago Symphony. “I have asked a lot of the kids this year and they have really risen to the occasion,” said Denson.

Festival and ticket information will be available at www.musicforall.org/festival, or by calling 800-848-2263. If you are unable to attend, but would like to support the McLean High School Bands Program, donations are being taken online under the menu header Fundraising on the band's website. http://www.mcleanband.org

Images courtesy of Marion Meakem Photography:

(Image 1, clockwise order) McLean High School Chamber Wind Ensemble: Sidnea Strelser, Caroline Brunner, Emily Simons, Anna Gamboa, Stephanie Manning, Christina Savory, Sohee Kim, Jessie Friedman, Ryan Woody, Sarah Bonforte, Kevin Jiang, Reagan Lumme, Jaeson Jun, Nathan Zhu, Sarah Levy, Maia Williams

(Image 2) Deidra Denson, Associate Director of Bands