Banding Together

Above: Bishop Ronald Gainer offers the Invocation to start off the Area Band Concert 2010 on a prayerful note.

This year's edition of the Catholic Schools' Area Band Concert brought together over 350 students and all those instruments (hundreds in the percussion sections alone) for an amazing concert experience. Students represented bands from Grades 5 through 8 at Christ the King, Mary Queen of the Holy Rosary, Saints Peter & Paul and Seton Catholic from Lexington and St. Agatha Academy in Winchester. The Lexington Catholic High School Concert Band, Jazz Band, Percussion Class Ensemble, and Morning Percussion Ensemble all played it up as well. Thanks to Band Directors Allison Weitkamp, Brad Kerns, Laura Fritz and Craig Potter for putting together such a great show and finding enough chairs and music stands for everybody.

At left: The 5th Grade band - 125 members strong - play "Dragon Slayer."

Below: The audience knew the dragon got his just desserts when they heard the gong.

Above left: The 6th Grade told us in the intro to their big number (appropriately named, "More Cowbell") "You can always use more cowbell!" The cowbell players worked hard on anchoring each end of the percussion section.

Above right: The LCHS Morning Percussion showed how to launch the wake up call on their "Bullseye" number. Obviously, no expense was spared to round up these percussion items (i.e., 5 gallon buckets from your famous home improvement store).

At left: The 7th grade trumpets announce the entry of "Lancelot."

Below: The 8th Grade percussion taps and tymphonies it out on "Greek Folk Trilogy" while the trombones set the bass tones.

The LCHS band featured Three French Horns (at left) and some heavy metal - tuba style (below). And check out the cool shades on the sax player.

At left: One of the two LCH band members who came rushing in from their baseball game to play their parts - such impressive dedication and versatility (and, the baseball team won!).

At right: Director Allison Weitkamp presented Superintendent of Catholic Schools, Bill Farnau, with a special plaque to honor him for his support of the band programs throughout the Catholic school system over the years. Bill retires later this year, so it was also a great time to thank him for his years of service to Catholic education in the Diocese of Lexington.