By Garland Noel

“People may say that it takes a lot of dedication and work, and they’re right about that, but it’s all worth it in the end, ” said freshman Chase Bishop

Bishop, who plays baritone saxophone for pep, concert and marching band, is playing his first pops concert this year along with most of the freshman band players. The pops concert, which is held here on Wednesday at 7, marks the last time this year’s marching music will ever be played. The marching band is not alone as all the school bands will be playing their own part of the performance, making this one of the largest band concert aside from Winter Fantasia.

“We’re playing ‘Instant Concert,’ ‘Into the Storm’ and ‘Romanesque’,” said freshman intermediate band percussionist Luke Malone.

Malone said that his favorite piece was “Instant Concert” because it was fun to play and had a lot of songs in it. Freshman Mason Moberly and others agreed with his assessment, although Bishop disagreed and said his favorite was “Into the Storm.”

“It has the most energy has the most energy of the all pieces. ‘Instant Concert’ pretty much has one theme through out the entire piece, but ‘Into the Storm’ combines three different themes,” said Bishop.

With the intermediate, advanced, jazz, marching and pep bands playing this is a huge event, not to mention the A and B winter guard and the winter percussion playing. For some, though, it all comes back to why they do it.

“I have a lot of friends in band; everybody gets along, it’s just a cool experience,” said Bishop.