This 2025-26 school year at Riverside Brookfield High School, the band participated in the first ever Upstate Eight Conference Band Festival. It took place at Ridgewood High School and, three bands were able to attend: the 11th and 12th grade honors band, the 9th and 10th grade band, and the jazz band.
The RB band director, James Baum, helped organize the festival, which allowed the 32 nominated RB students in attendance to personally work with clinicians, play music, and learn from other high schools in the area. The introduction of the conference band festival this year brought new opportunities and experiences for the students.
“A while back, we switched into the Upstate Eight Conference, and when we came in, we noticed that there wasn’t a conference band yet,” Baum said. “And so a few of us band directors from around the conference got together and made the first conference band happen.”
Senior Jane Tselepis is involved in the jazz band and is president of the RB Tri-M Music Honor Society chapter. She participated in the jazz band performance as a tenor saxophonist and enjoyed her experience.
“My favorite part was seeing people I knew from other schools and getting to play with them, and getting to see the other performances was really cool,” Tselepis said.
Despite the group aspect of the band department, students had to put in work outside of their class. It required the students to complete lots of practice and preparation on their own time.
“There is a lot of independence in musicianship because they had to individually prepare the parts and make sure that they were set to go on it,” Baum said. “And then all the basics on their instruments, the techniques required, and the music that they were playing. And then on top of that, the stamina to get through a whole day of rehearsals followed by an evening performance.”
Not only was the music challenging to learn and finalize, but it was time consuming, and the members of the band dedicated lots of effort towards a great performance.
“We had to print out our own music and prepare the music ahead of time because we only had one day to rehearse all the music and combine with everyone else,” Tselepis said. “I personally practiced the music the weeks before with recordings and made sure that my part sounded good.”
Although it was only one performance, the students have been working towards it for a long time.
“The students received their music in January and then had to individually prepare their parts,” Baum said. “It was all on them, and then on the day of, they got to work with the clinicians and be attentive in rehearsals.”
The whole day was filled with new experiences, such as working with clinicians and performing countless rehearsals to perfect their performances.
“It was fun working with a different director than you usually work with because you have to learn how to adapt to their conducting style,” Tselepis said. “And then we met up with our bands, and we just practiced, practiced, practiced.”
As a result of the success this year, the band directors in Upstate Eight have high hopes for the conference band in future years.
“A big goal for all of the participating directors is to get our colleagues from the other schools to also participate,” Baum said. “The hope is to have a true representation of the conference.”
Overall, the band department is excited to see what is in store for future years. The first conference band was a large success and proved to be a step in the right direction.
“It’s really exciting to see the band department continuing to grow,” Tselepis said. “The members of our band really held their place in the Upstate Eight Conference Band. We were all really great, so that was really fun to see.”
