The Nexus

The Wind Ensemble players sat down in their designated seats on the stage. Carefully, each one adjusted their instruments and their chairs to their comfort. Their eyes discreetly wandered the interior of the hall and followed the immense ceiling, specially designed to intensify sound.

The band director, Jeri Webb, nodded to the audience and smiled. She raised her arms very slowly in an attempt to savor the moment, and flicked her baton.

Beautiful melodies began to echo through the hall, reverberating off of the walls and amplifying the ensemble’s piece.

Last month on April 8, Westview Gold’s Wind Ensemble was granted the opportunity to play at the legendary Carnegie Hall in New York.

The group of 50 wind ensemble musicians boarded the plane with their instruments and uniforms in tow, and flew to New York over their spring break.

When the students arrived at Carnegie Hall, they could not believe the grandeur of it all.

“It was surreal,” Matthew Kessler (10) said. “Lots of famous musicians and bands had played there, and we were on the stage that they played on.”

Joining Westview in the festival were four schools from California, Tennessee, Utah and Florida. The five bands were graded based on a certain rubric and they received ratings after they performed.

Westview opened the entire festival by performing three pieces: Triumphal Prelude composed by Thomas Doss, Hymn for the Cream and Crimson composed by Richard Saucedo and Variations on a Theme of Robert Schuman composed by Robert Jager, the last being a piece meant for college-level bands.

The students knew that their performance would set the tone for the evening, which put pressure on them to do well, but the band director was more confident.

“I wasn’t nervous because we were very well-prepared,” Webb said. “We were ready to do a great job. I was just anxious because I heard so many wonderful things [about Carnegie Hall].”

At Carnegie Hall, each school had about 20 minutes to practice with the space and the acoustics. After their first few notes, the students and Webb knew that this would be a fun performance.

“[The sound] kept flowing,” Webb said. “It only flows like that if [the music] is in tune. It was partially the hall, but partially the group too.”

The students agreed that the sound was miraculous, and they felt that they performed at their best as well.

“I think we did the best we’ve ever done,” Alyssa Wheelock (11) said. “[We even did] better than rehearsal, it was really cool. It may have been partially from the adrenaline, but it was also the hard work.”

After Westview’s performance, the audience applauded for almost an entire minute.

“It felt really good [to play],” Kessler said. “We got a long applause, like 50 seconds. Our [applause] was probably the longest.”

The stunning performance earned Westview Gold’s Wind Ensemble the Gold award, the highest award available at this festival, pleasantly surprising Westview’s musicians.

“We were all surprised when they said that [Rancho Bernardo] got gold,” Wheelock said. “We were surprised that we got the same as them.”

Webb categorizes Westview as near equal to that of Rancho Bernardo. It took just over seven years for Rancho Bernardo to develop their band program, and Westview is near that seven-year mark. Westview will continue to progress to catch up to Rancho Bernardo’s status.

Along with their Gold award, the Wind Ensemble received multiple compliments from the panel of judges.

Professor William Johnson from California Polytechnic State University works in the university’s music department and was a judge for the festival.

“I am extremely proud of the performance of this ensemble, especially being a young school,” Johnson said.

The other judges had similar comments, noting that the ensemble was “superb and very enjoyable.”

After such a success at Carnegie Hall, the players spent the rest of their visit exploring the sights of New York. The group took tours of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, saw a show on Broadway, “In the Heights,” and went on a Harbor cruise.

“People on the street congratulated us,” Andrew Occiano (12) said. “It was special.”

To have the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall, the band went through a selection process to get chosen.

Two years earlier, Webb discovered the festival online. Unlike the other festivals, the New York Wind Band Festival, put on by World Projects, was to be held at Carnegie Hall. She called the company, hoping to get more information to apply, but they discouraged her from even entering because they believed that such a new band would not have developed their program well enough to compete yet.

Despite this suggestion, Webb still sent in the application for Westview’s band, consisting of a DVD and CD to showcase both the look and sound of Westview’s ensemble. She knew her band could qualify for this festival. Only a week later, Webb got a call that Westview had been accepted. The first five bands to apply that could play at a certain level were accepted into the festival, and Westview qualified.

Last May, Webb shared the news with her class about the trip to New York. It was at this time that students were trying out for this year’s Wind Ensemble and the Carnegie Hall trip was a major incentive for students to try out.

“I thought it would be a good experience to play at Carnegie Hall,” Wheelock said. “That’s why I auditioned.”

Students were greatly honored by this opportunity as well.

“I was really excited,” Kessler said. “It’s a prestigious thing to do because the acoustics are world-renowned.”

When Webb first was informed of the group’s acceptance, she was worried. She knew that a festival so far away would only work if every student could go, and she knew it would take a lot of work to get them there.

In order to finance the trip, the band hosted multiple fundraisers, some for specific students and others for the group as a whole. There were nine students who received some form of scholarship to help pay for the trip. Some kids said that they couldn’t go at first, but Webb was determined and successful in having every member go, whether it meant providing them with free flights or hosting more fundraisers. Webb wasn’t going to let her students lose this rare opportunity.