Band students exercise right to vote

The election season hasn’t ended for the school’s band students who have been given an opportunity to exercise their right to vote for which pieces they will play in the upcoming winter concert.

“With the older ensembles, we read a lot of pieces,” band director Christopher Houze said.  “And from those pieces, the kids in the groups get to pick their favorites.”

So Houze put it to a vote.

“I picked out the songs that we selected from, but they got to make the final decision,” Houze said. “There’s a little bit of a democratic process to it. I mean, they’re the ones that have to play it.”

Because the concert will be held in late November, it will not be solely focused on Christmas music.

“Depending on how close we are to the actual winter holidays, we may overplay that idea that it’s a winter concert,” Houze said. “This concert being in November, we may do a couple of winter-themed songs, but we’re not going out of our way to make it a winter concert.”

Freshman Austin Ponder, a euphonium player in Advanced Band, said the band has been practicing for months.

“We usually do a Christmas piece,” Ponder said. “We’re playing a lot of classical music, but we are also playing faster-paced songs.”

The concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 28 at Eau Gallie High School’s Performing Arts Center. 

By Riley Harper