This Year's Band-o-Rama Was Music to the Ears

On Monday night, Medfield's band students in grades 5 to 12 took an opportunity to showcase their skills and also had the chance to hear what they could sound like when they "grow up" if they stay in the music program.

Medfield Public Schools Music Director Doug Olsen described the different styles of music and how they progressively got more difficult as the students make their way into high school.

Dale Street and Blake Middle School Band Director Ryan Dexter showed students and parents, gathered in the Blake gymnasium, the different musical instrument choices the students have in Medfield.

"Tonight's concert is an opportunity for students and parents to view not only the instrumental curriculum in grades 5-12, but also to experience the possibilities each student will have as they continue in music," said Olsen in the program. 

Here is a summary of pieces played at the event:

Dale Fifth Grade Band

• Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow by Robert Smith
• Let's Go Band by Andrew Balent

Sixth Grade Band

• The Tempest by Robert Smith
• All Ye Young Sailors by Pierre LaPlante

Seventh and Eighth Grade Band

• Korean Folk Rhapsody by James Curnow
• Dances from Terpsichore by Michael Praetorius (Arr. Kathryn Fenske)

High School Concert Band

• March of the Steel Man by Charles Belsterling
• Variations on a Korean Folksong by John Barnes Chance

Finale

• "America," an arrangement of American patriotic tunes performed by all band members in grades 5-12