Many countless hours of practice and making sure every member is ready, The Akins classical guitar ensemble is preparing for the University Interscholastic League. In the past years the guitar ensemble has been honored with awards from UIL with members as in graduated Javier Saucedo, junior Jeremy Daus, and senior Austin Davenport and other members that have gone and competed at UIL.
Catherine Bennett is the orchestra and guitar director.
“We have so many talented musicians here at Akins,” Bennett said.
The competition this year includes a full ensemble and another one for solo guitarists.
“I have no doubt that we will continue on with the tradition of sending the orchestra and guitar students to the State Solo and Ensemble competition at the University of Texas on May 25, 2013,” Bennett said.
Students will face a lot of competition this year, since the number of guitar programs in the schools around the district have grown a lot. Last year marked the very first time a guitar ensemble competed in a UIL competition, in the past years it was only solo guitarist that had competed at UIL competition.
At last year’s UIL competition, in 2011, advanced guitar was awarded with straights ones, the highest award, for the first time.
“This year the students in the Advanced Guitar Ensemble know exactly what to expect in a UIL setting.” Bennett said. “They know how to prepare for it and they know what to expect when it comes to the Sight Reading portion of the competition.”
The guitar program has been growing every year, on November 2 they held their annual Akins orchestra and guitar fall festival. The night consisted of a concert and a pre-concert spaghetti dinner, a silent auction and other events to benefit the program. All of the proceeds from the event pay for music, tools and opportunities for the group.
“This is our largest fund-raiser of the year,” Bennet said. “It’s nice to be able to have a nice evening of music and food and generate funds to keep our program moving forwards towards bigger and better things.”
With a vast increase in the members of orchestra and guitar programs this year, the organization hopes to raise enough money in order to prepare the musicians for performances and events that follow in the rest of the year. Guitar’s next performance will be on November 19 in the theatre.
