Virginia Tech's Honor Band program is an opportunity for middle school and high school students to participate in an intensive clinic. This year, 550 students from 5 states participated. Their weekend began early on Friday morning with auditions. The students were then placed in one of five bands: two middle school groups and three high school groups. Joshua made it into the top band. On Friday afternoon, the bands met for their first rehearsals. The evening concluded with a concert presented by Virginia Tech's wind ensemble.
The original plan was for the kids to rehearse all day Saturday, have a free evening, then present a concert on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, a weather event (aka: snowstorm) prompted a change in plans. Since the storm was expected to hit Blacksburg late Sunday morning, the kids had a long rehearsal on Saturday morning, a late lunch and then a late afternoon concert. Some families left on Saturday evening. We elected to stay overnight and leave early Sunday morning.
When Dave woke up about 6 AM this morning, the snow was just starting. He quickly roused Joshua and me and we got out of town just as the snow was beginning to stick to the road. We got home about 10:30 this morning. The snow has been coming down in Fairfax for about 2 hours now. No big deal, we're only going to get 1-2 inches.
Virginia Tech has a beautiful campus nestled in the mountains of western Virginia. Most of the buildings are beautiful stone structures. The first one below is a classroom building.
This is a view of Burrus Hall, where the concerts were held. This building houses a quaint old concert hall.
This photo shows some of the details by the entrance to Burrus Hall. I wish contemporary architecture had nice details like these.
The student concert ended at about 5 PM on Saturday evening, just as the sun was setting. Since we were parked near the duck pond, I took some shots down there.
All in all, it was an enjoyable weekend. Joshua is looking forward to going back next year. Dave and I will be glad to go with him.
3 comments:
i love purple sunsets
There were five students from Oakton attending the event. Several other Oakton students wanted to go but were not invited. Next weekend, Josh has another of these events at a university 20 minutes from home.
It seems as if we both were making a family trip this week-end, with weather impressive enough to mention it. We would really want some snow and ice here. I have two nieces (twins) also busy with music in a band together with their mother, we visited concerts a couple of times, it's great fun.
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