Final performance of the year

Every year, the Waseca Music Department ends its concert band productions with the Pops Concert under the direction of Devon Lawrence.

On Friday, May 12, the Concert and Symphonic Bands had their last concert of the year.

“It’s been great working with these kids all year,” Lawrence said. “I’m blessed to get to teach all of them.”

The pops concert includes different popular classical and modern pieces with at least one piece selected by the band members themselves. The concert band chose to do “Spiderman: No Way Home” by Michael G. Giacchino, arranged for band by Michael Brown. The symphonic band chose “Avengers: Endgame,” composed by Alan Silvestri and again arranged for band by Brown.

Lawrence admitted that while he knows the music of the two pieces for the Marvel movies, “I haven’t seen them yet. I will make that my goal this summer.”

The other pieces the concert band performed were “Fanfare for a New Era” by Pinkzebra, “Flying Away” by Yukiko Nishimura, “Foundry” by John Mackey, and a very special composition “Journey in the Meadow” by Waseca senior Ryan Leigh.

Lawrence shared a story about Leigh’s piece before handing off the baton to him to conduct the band. “One day, Ryan walked up to me after class and asked if the band could perform one of his pieces later in the year. I said sure, thinking that, you know, maybe he’ll write something this year, maybe not. If he didn’t, it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

It turned out Leigh was waiting for his moment, as he handed him the composition “Journey in the Meadow” about two weeks later.

The symphonic bands’ other pieces were “‘The Gum-Suckers’ March” by Percy Aldridge Grainger, “Before the Sun” by Julie Giroux, and “Danzon No. 2” by Arturo Marquez and arranged by Oliver Nickel. “Before the Sun” featured senior trumpet player Joe Feldkamp on violin.

Before the conclusion of each concert, Lawrence gave out awards to recipients chosen by their fellow students as the best, most motivated musician in the band. Bass trombonist Andrick Balderas won the award in the concert band and French horn player Lindsey Kopetzki won the award, dubbed the “John Philip Sousa” award, in the symphonic band.

Lawrence also recognized all the seniors in both bands. He gave a very touching speech before each senior received a flower, a certificate, and a handshake or hug.

“While every grade and every band are special to me, these groups of seniors hold a special place in my heart. They were my first group of freshmen when I came to teach here. They’re an awesome group of kids. We went through Covid-19 together, and they completed all their sight reading assignments when I asked them to.”

To wrap things up, he thanked the audience for coming. “And a special thanks to the parents who told their kid to pick up the trumpet and encouraged them to grow in their playing,” he said.