Viera High band to perform at national music festival and needs funds to get there
The Viera Hawks woodwind ensemble will wing its way to Indianapolis in March, joining middle and high school ensembles from across the nation on stage for the Music for All Foundation's National Festival.
The long-running annual band festival, which runs from March 12 to 14, will bring together about 5,000 young musicians comprising 75 ensembles in all styles of concert music for a weekend of performance, coaching and camaraderie.
Bands were chosen by blind review on the strength of their recorded performance, said Stan Schoonover, Music for All's educational coordinator.
"The contest is to actually get an invitation to this event. There were many groups that did not get an invitation ... so it's a big deal to reach that level of performance." Schoonover told the 60-member ensemble at a special presentation Tuesday night at the Viera High School media center.
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Participants will spend three days performing at venues across Indianapolis, coaching with college music professors and conductors, and attending master classes with artists from Yamaha, which is sponsoring the event.
Senior clarinetist Max Reed called news of the invitation "surreal."
"It seems like a really fun experience, and I feel really excited to go," Reed said.
"I definitely feel accomplished," added Louis Deal, also a senior. "It's not something everyone gets to do in their lifetime."
The trip will cost about $1,600 each, said band director Dominick Eggen. With 60 students and about a dozen chaperones, the band will have to raise about $115,000 by late January to make it happen.
Eggen said they already have a fundraising game plan, based on a similar effort that sent the full 180-member band to the Sugar Bowl in 2017. "That rolled into about $200,000, and we were pretty successful with that," he said. "I feel confident we will do it."
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"I'm very much honored that we are considered worthy to attend," Eggen said of the event. "I'm very happy for the students. ... I hope it sparks curiosity and interest in, not necessarily majoring in music, but keeping it in their lives somehow."
Interested in making a tax-deductible donation to get the Hawks to Indianapolis? Contact Eggen at eggen.dominick@brevardschools.org.
Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricRogersFT.