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TxBPressEverything you want to know!
11/07/072007 UIL 4A State Review (From TxBLive)During the 2007 UIL 4A State Marching Band Contest, I was busy doing live reviews of all the bands on http://live.txbands.com. For historical purposes, I have copied those postings to here from the TxBLive Blog and re-ordered them so that it reads from top-down instead of bottom-up. 10/14/072007 BOA Arlington ReviewOK, now that the Cowboy's penalized themselves out of the Patriots game, I guess I can start writing this review. :-O There were lots of good shows here including a clash of some of the most anticipated shows in the state. Unlike BOA Houston where most of the shows were straight forward and powerful/moving, the name of the game here was innovative and/or creative show design. Oh, and this is the first time since BOA Arlington started in 2001 that any band other than LD Bell or Ronald Reagan has won this regional. 10/08/07Regional Review- Colorado Edition!Zach's first adventure in to the world of Colorado marching band. 10/07/072007 BOA Houston Review and CommentaryWow, there's lots to talk about after this amazing competition from Brazoswood winning Music and not making finals to Ronald Reagan coming in 5th. 09/30/072007 HEB Marching Contest ReviewAh, the first competition of the season! I had a good time baking out in the sun and getting my farmer's tan back. This competition is a good preview of what is to come in the 4A Area B competition and we get our first taste of the final installment of LD Bell's trilogy that started with Ascension. 11/05/06Random Thoughts on BOA San Antonio 2006First off, I want to just come out and say that this is going to go down as one of the best years for Marching Band (both Texas and National) in all of history. Alan Irons will be doing a full review on ALL of the bands at BOA San Antonio, so I’m not even going to try to match or keep up with him (it’s not possible). Here are some of my random thoughts on BOA SA and a number of bands that were there (mostly Finals). 10/11/062006 BOA Arlington Finals ReviewBOA Arlington, the first Texas BOA Regional of the season. Dan Valdez, myself, and a few other forums members had an amazing time sitting in the stadium baking in the sun to witness every awesome band in attendance. This review is only of the Finalist bands, but all of the bands in attendance put on great shows. 10/07/06BOA Arlington & Houston Regional Schedule
Prelims schedules for the Bands of America Arlington & Houston Regional Championships have been posted. Arlington: http://www.bands.org/public/events/regionals/06.info/tx-hn.asp Houston: http://www.bands.org/public/events/regionals/06.info/tx-hn.asp The Arlington Regional is currently taking place at the University of Texas at Arlington Stadium while the Houston Regional is next Saturday, October 14th, in Pearland, TX. Also, more information on the UIL Area & BOA San Antonio Super Regional Championships lineups as they become available. Stay tuned. ---- 10/02/062006 Carrollton Tournament of Champions ReviewThe 2006 Carrollton Tournament of Champions was a very nice contest with lots of great competition very early in the season. I got there during the first break so I'll only be reviewing 22 bands instead of the amazing 30 that were there. 08/29/06August BOA UpdateQuick update on the Texas BOA Regionals..... ------- --------------------- Arlington, TX Regional University of Texas at Arlington Stadium Boswell H.S. - Fort Worth TX Additions: Withdrawals: Brazoswood H.S. - Clute TX Additions: Withdrawals: --------------------- Americas H.S. - El Paso TX Additions: Withdrawals:
Grand National Roster can be viewed at: http://www.bands.org/public/events/regionals/06.info/gn.asp For more information on Bands of America, please visit their website at: http://www.bands.org Stay tuned to TXBands.com for the latest updates. 08/01/06Quick BOA UpdateDue to lack of entries at the BOA La Joya Regional Championships, Bands of America has decided to cancel the competition for the 2006 season. No word if BOA will return the Valley in 2007. Prior to the cancellation, there were only three bands registered for the Regional. The Stephen F. Austin HS Marching Band of Sugar Land, TX has officially withdrawn from the 2006 Bands of America Grand National Championships. Sources have told me that it was due to the lack of funds. No word if SFA will compete at the BOA San Antonio, TX Super Regional instead. This means 6 Texas bands will be making the trip to Indianapolis for Grand Nationals. Cypress Falls HS (Houston) This ties the most Texas bands at Grand Nationals since the 2002 season when Haltom, Ronald Reagan, Spring, Stephen F. Austin, The Woodlands & Winston Churchill attended. More updates as they become available. ----- 06/20/06BOA - June UpdateAn update on the 2006 Bands of America Regional & Grand National Championships.... UPDATE: June 19, 2006 *Sites have been confirmed for the BOA McAllen & Houston, Texas Regionals. The McAllen Regional will now be held at Veterans Memorial Stadium in McAllen. And, due to a conflict with the Rice University football team on October 14th, the Houston Regional will no longer be held at Rice Stadium. The competition has been moved to the Pearland ISD Stadium, also known as “The Rig”, in Pearland, TX. The stadium was built in 2001 and is regarded as one of the finest high school facilities in the Houston area. The stadium boasts a two story press box and a seating capacity of close to 9,500. Pictures of The Rig can be found at the following links. Field view *Mansfield HS of Mansfield will be traveling to St. Louis, Missouri to compete at the St. Louis Super Regional Championships. This marks the second time that a Texas band will be in attendance at the competition. L.D. Bell HS of Hurst went in 2004 and was named the St. Louis Super Regional Champion. *Several bands have registered or withdrawn from several of the Regionals. Look under each Regional roster for more details. -------
McAllen, TX Regional Veterans Memorial Stadium Hidalgo H.S. - Hidalgo TX Additions: Withdrawals: Boswell H.S. - Fort Worth TX Additions: Withdrawals: Brazoswood H.S. - Clute TX Additions: Withdrawals: Americas H.S. - El Paso TX Additions: Withdrawals:
Bands of America Grand National Championships RCA Dome - Indianapolis, Indiana Avon H.S. - Avon IN For more information on Bands of America, please visit their website at: http://www.bands.org Stay tuned to TXBands.com for the latest updates!! 06/17/06TMEA Honor BandThis weekend, I went to one of the most amazing competitions that I have ever witnessed. No, I didn’t fly out to an early season DCI competition. But what other competitions are going on during the summer you ask? TMEA Honor Band! 04/19/06Composer of the Week - Hector BerliozHector Berlioz As a boy he learnt the flute, guitar and, from treatises alone, harmony (he never studied the piano); his first compositions were romances and small chamber pieces. After two unhappy years as a medical student in Paris (1821-3) he abandoned the career chosen for him by his father and turned decisively to music, attending Le Sueur's composition class at the Conservatoire. 
04/05/06Composer of the Week - Franz SchubertFranz Schubert The son of a schoolmaster, he showed an extraordinary childhood aptitude for music, studying the piano, violin, organ, singing and harmony and, while a chorister in the imperial court chapel, composition with Salieri (1808-13). By 1814, at age 17, he had produced piano pieces settings of Schiller and Metastasio, string quartets, his first symphony and a three-act opera.
03/25/06Work of the Week - Peterloo OvertureSir Malcolm Arnold Sir Malcolm Arnold was born October 21, 1921, at Northampton, England. In 1938, he gained a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. While there, he won the Cobbett Composition Prize in 1941. He joined the London Philharmonic as third trumpet and assumed the post of principal trumpet in 1942.
03/22/06Composer of the Week - Modest MussorgskyModest Mussorgsky His mother gave him piano lessons, and at nine he played a Field concerto before an audience in his parents' house. In 1852 he entered the Guards' cadet school in St Petersburg. Although he had not studied harmony or composition, in 1856 he tried to write an opera; the same year he entered the Guards. In 1857 he met Dargomïzhsky and Cui, and through them Balakirev and Stasov. He persuaded Balakirev to give him lessons and composed songs and piano sonatas.
03/13/06The Greatest High School Marching Band of All-time(Note: this is a re-post of something I wrote three years ago. I believe, in many respects, what happened "then" continues to influence the marching arts of "now." Enjoy!) The Greatest High School Marching Band of Alltime Bands of America 1993: A Ten Year Retrospect By Alan R. Irons It was ten years ago that a band from Spring, Texas won the 1993 Bands of America Grand National Championships. From then on this band has become somewhat of a legend in the high school marching band community. The 1993 Spring High School band is considered by many as "the best high school marching band of all time." 03/11/06Work of the Week - Aegean Festival OvertureAndreas Makris Andreas Makris was born in Salonika, Greece. After graduating as an honor student from the National Conservatory of Greece, Makris continued his studies at Phillips University, the Kansas City Conservatory (UMKC), the Mannes School of Music, the Aspen Music Festival, and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. For many years he served as a first violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Mstislav Rostropovich who appointed Makris music advisor and Composer-in-Residence to that orchestra. 03/08/06Composer of the Week - Franz LisztFranz Liszt He was taught the piano by his father and then Czerny (Vienna, 1822-3), establishing himself as a remarkable concert artist by the age of 12. In Paris he studied theory and composition with Reicha and Paer; he wrote an opera and bravura piano pieces and undertook tours in France, Switzerland and England before ill-health and religious doubt made him reassess his career. Intellectual growth came through literature, and the urge to create through hearing opera and especially Paganini, whose spectacular effects Liszt eagerly transferred to the piano in original works and operatic fantasias. Meanwhile he gave lessons and began his stormy relationship (1833-44) with the (married) Countess Marie d'Agoult. They lived in Switzerland and Italy and had three children.
03/04/06Work of the Week - ProfanationLeonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts on August 25, 1918 and died in New York City in 1990. He is considered to be the first internationally-known musician to be entirely the product of American schooling and was one of the few composers who was equally at home in the popular theater and concert hall. He studied at Harvard University and the Curtis Institute of Music in New York.
03/01/06Composer of the Week - Béla BartókBéla Bartók He began lessons with his mother, who brought up the family after his father's death in 1888. In 1894 they settled in Bratislava, where he attended the Gymnasium (Dohnányi was an elder schoolfellow), studied the piano with Laszlo Erkel and Anton Hyrtl, and composed sonatas and quartets. In 1898 he was accepted by the Vienna Conservatory, but following Dohnányi he went to the Budapest Academy (1899-1903), where he studied the piano with Liszt's pupil Istvan Thoman and composition with Janos Koessler. There he deepened his acquaintance with Wagner, though it was the music of Strauss, which he met at the Budapest premiere of Also sprach Zarathustra in 1902, that had most influence. He wrote a symphonic poem, Kossuth (1903), using Strauss's methods with Hungarian elements in Liszt's manner.
02/23/06Composer of the Week - Johann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach He was the youngest son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, a town musician, from whom he probably learnt the violin and the rudiments of musical theory. When he was ten he was orphaned and went to live with his elder brother Johann Christoph, organist at St. Michael's Church, Ohrdruf, who gave him lessons in keyboard playing. From 1700 to 1702 he attended St. Michael's School in Lüneburg, where he sang in the church choir and probably came into contact with the organist and composer Georg Böhm. He also visited Hamburg to hear J.A. Reincken at the organ of St. Catherine's Church.
12/30/05Composer of the Week - Paul HindemithPaul Hindemith Hindemith was the oldest of three children born to his father who was a housepainter. Hindemith always had a knack for music but did not begin to study it formally until the age of 9. Though once he started, his progress was astounding. Until he went off to the Conservatory in Frankfurt at age 13, he played viola in a string trio with his brother and sister. While at the conservatory he progressed amazingly on the viola and in his theoretical skills.
12/23/05Work of the Week - Lincolnshire PosyLincolnshire Posy Grainger was a native Australian and lived there until 1896 when he was sent to Europe to hopefully study with Clara Schumann, wife of the deceased master Robert Schumann. Shortly after his arrival there though, Clara died also. :: Next Page >> TxBPressTxBPress is the premiere resource for band and drum corps related news, within the state of Texas and beyond! | Next >
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