Music to our ears
Band director adds new honor society to fine arts department
Sophomore Grey Johnson performs at the Four States Marching Contest in the Tiger Marching Band. The Tri-M Music Honor Society will begin at Texas High in August 2018. The honor society will include the three musical organizations on campus which consist of band, choir and orchestra.
June 4, 2018
The fluttering of the flutes. The belting of the choir singers. The vibrato of the violins and cellos. They all have something in common: musicality. Yet, they are not unified at school, but band director Steve Bennett plans on changing the disconnectivity between the musical department of the school.
In this coming school year, band director Steve Bennet is planning to bring Tri-M, a brand new program, to the school which will bring together the various parts of the musical department. The program has been around for a while and is recognized at the national level, but it has never been implemented here at Texas High.
“It’s something that Mr. Lawson brought to my attention and we looked into it,” Bennet said. “We saw the student leadership that it incorporates and we passed it onto Mr. Bailey and he said that it would be a great organization to have on this campus.”
With the start of a new organization, Bennet hopes to accomplish various goals in the upcoming year.
“Some of the goals we want to accomplish through Tri-M is to find ourselves as musicians within the student body and in the general public,” Bennet said. “ [We are going to become more visible by] being volunteers and helping out in certain areas whether it be performing or assisting outside of these walls, off the field and football field. [We want to] get the students to use their talents to install a positive outlook about the youth and our community, and start installing leadership within the students.”
Bennet has shown his dedication for this organization and his inspired the majority of the band to apply for the organization.
“I applied because I like music,” sophomore Madaline Criddle said. “I figured that it would be way to get more involved in that aspect, like Mr. Bennet said that would have opportunities to play for the community outside of this band program, which is exciting.”
I’m looking forward to contributing ideas, for not just our band program, but the students in it and the community in any way we can. — Kamryn Johnson
Bennet hopes to make this a student-led organization and has inspired many students within the various musical organizations to join and be willing to be active members.
“I’m looking forward to contributing ideas, for not just our band program, but the students in it and the community in any way we can,” junior Kamryn Johnson said. “I remember a couple few years back, I was volunteering at a retiring home and I told the activity director that I was in band and she told me that it would be nice for the band to perform for us. And I didn’t have any way to facilitate that, but with Tri-M, I would have a way to hopefully bring joy to the elderly.”
With the start of Tri-M underway, Bennet is already looking to the future and what it could possibly expand into.
“It involves orchestra, band and choir,” Bennet said. “Now eventually, it’s going to encompass the middle school too, but we are starting off right now with the high school. Once we get the ball rolling, we will reevaluate and look into expanding it [to the middle school].”
