Hitting the high notes in annual Honor Band Festival

This is the Virginia Tech Honor Band Festival. We have over 700 high school students recommended by their directors, and we end up accepting about 400 of them to come and participate on campus with four different contrabands, with guest conductors, master classes with our faculty, and to experience what being on the Virginia Tech campus is. And at the end of the experience of the three days, on Sunday afternoon, it ends with a concert with all four concert bands. Lots of space! I think that the Honor Band really helped prepare me for my music education experience, and it just really helped me prepare for just a world of music and to be able to see a little bit of an example of different teaching styles from the different directors. Coming here to Honor Band played a huge role in my decision to come to Tech because I had a great experience, and I found that everybody I met here was so kind and just really wanted to help me. The most important thing about where I ended up being was that it was a community of good people who just were gonna support me. If there's one thing that they walk away with, I really want them to have a significant artistic experience. I want them to know that when they come to college after high school, if that's something they choose to do, that they can continue music, even if they're not a music major. But also if they want to be a music major, that it's a really great career and that there are pathways to be very successful.