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Middle school band selected for international clinic
Chris Beattie/Staff Photo -- Seventh-grader Mia Hayes, front, and Symphonic I band members practice Thursday at Faubion Middle School. The band was recently selected as one of three middle school bands from aroudn the world to perform at the Midwest Clinic, an international music conference in Chicago.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
Junior high bands get used to local competitions in school auditoriums. They don't picture playing for 15,000 people from around the world.
Unless they are Faubion Middle School's Symphonic I band.
The school's top band was recently selected to perform Dec. 19-22 in Chicago at the Midwest Clinic, an annual international music conference that many consider the most prestigious band and orchestra event in the world.
Why them?
"Because we're the best," said Brian Beck, Faubion band director. "That's what we do."
And they'll have anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 listeners to attest to that. Held each December since 1946, the Midwest Clinic attracts bands, orchestras, musicians and educators from all over the world for a week of performances, clinics and exhibits.
Those selected to perform, like Faubion, showcase new music that audience members can teach their respective band or orchestra back home. Each performance group has a bio outlining its songs, makeup and where it came from.
Though his young musicians knew little of the conference, Beck in March submitted two of their pieces, a recorded mesh of their best moments on each song. Their audition was not heard by parents or UIL judges, but by critics who often "turn it off and move on if they don't like it," Beck said.
"Directors at every level, throughout not just the United States, but the world...aspire to have a group perform at the Midwest Clinic because it's held in such high esteem in the professional world around the globe," said Ray E. Carter, president of the Clinic.
The Clinic board of directors didn't turn off Faubion, either. They congratulated Beck two weeks later.
"There was a little disbelief at first," Beck said of his band's selection. "I just kept reading the email over and over."
His shock likely turned to angst, knowing a new band would perform -- one with just a few months to prepare nine musical pieces. Because this year's eighth-graders won't be at Faubion in the fall, the Midwest group will consist of current sixth- and seventh-graders.
Seventh-grade bassoon player Mia Hayes will be there and, for the most part, cannot wait.
"Our concerts are relaxed because we don't have a judge, just our parents, and we've gotten straight 1s at competitions," she said. "This crowd is going to be really big, so I'm a little worried, but really excited."
Others who've put in the same work and worry leading up to the band's selection will be there only in spirit.
"I was very mad at first because I'm not going to go," said Andrew Oakes, eighth-grade English horn player. "But I'm just glad I was able to have a part in this."
His section, the double-reed musicians, certainly played its part when it quirkily envisioned the band's favorite song, "Psychropezia!" -- a multi-movement mix of the band's creativity and Beck's composition.
"One day, we got into this very odd conversation when one of us was talking about schizophrenia, but he mispronounced it and said pyschropezia instead," Oakes said. "At the end of the year, we asked Mr. Beck if he'd write a pieced called 'Pyschropezia,' and he wouldn't. He wanted us to do it."
Fueled by Beck's teaching, band members developed themes and melodies, to which Beck, a published composer, added harmony and organization. What he thought would be a "fun, little two-minute song" became a four-movement, 14-minute "masterpiece," he said.
The Symphonic I band played it at their Spring Concert, barely a precursor to the world stage the song will hit come December. Pyschropezia -- and the story behind it -- is on the Midwest lineup.
Before and after its performance, the Faubion band will sight-see and take it all in -- the Windy City, the music, the culture.
"They don't really realize they're going to be walking around and see a man in a Zulu headdress, or riding an elevator with men speaking Cantonese," Beck said. "It's an experience they'll never forget."
Armed with their own song, innocent confidence and a director who believes in them, they should be ready for the big stage.
Thousands may never forget this band from school auditoriums.
"There's just a culture at this school where band is important, and we don't let anything get in the way," Beck said. "The world needs to hear what students from McKinney, Texas can do."
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