Feb. 15 Foothills Band Festival Concert gives area high school students a chance to shine
It’s only a few minutes’ drive from three of Blount County’s four high schools to the Clayton Center for the Arts on the Maryville College campus, but for band students at those institutions, an opportunity to perform on the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre stage is a stepping stone.
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15, concert bands from those three schools will perform as part of the Foothills Band Festival Concert, an event organized by Dr. Eric Simpson, associate professor of music in the Division of Fine Arts and the College’s director of bands. According to Noah Tuten, director of the William Blount High School Concert Band, the performance will be a unique opportunity for students whose previous concert experiences have been limited to high school gymnasiums.
“We do our band concerts in our basketball gym, and that’s going to sound a lot different to a performer than an actual concert hall,” Tuten said. “For a lot of kids, the only chance they’ve ever had to perform is in basketball gyms at a high school. So to be able to come and enjoy a venue like the Clayton Center that’s so close to us means a lot to me and the kids.”
The performance also serves as a precursor to March’s East Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association’s Middle Area Concert Assessment, which will take place March 2 and 3 at the Clayton Center. Giving three of the county’s four high schools (Maryville High had already booked a Clayton Center performance date) an opportunity to perform in the MC facility, Simpson said, is a neighborly courtesy intended to showcase music talent at a county-wide level.
“I want a night where the people of Blount County see that all of these bands exist, and that they’re all doing their thing and trying to make music education vital,” Simpson said.
It’s also an opportunity to showcase to potential music students one of the rapidly expanding areas of the Division of Fine Arts, Simpson added: The band program’s growth in both size and quality has led to the development of a new pep band at Maryville College, scheduled to debut in the fall after a successful “test” performance at the 2021 Maryville Scots football homecoming game.
“I am so proud of those band students for working diligently to enhance the game day experience for our students and fans by preparing music, cheers, and enhancing the general esprit-de-corps of the homecoming game,” Simpson said. “Next year, that band will play at every home football game, select basketball games, and other essential events on and off campus.
“The band will consist of 30 members, and our administration has already provided funding for marching instruments (where necessary) for the pep band,” he added. “While the band will begin by playing from the stands, this is the first step in a multi-year plan that will culminate with a marching band back on Honaker Field at Maryville College!”
And there may well be students who take part in next Tuesday’s Foothills Band Concert Festival as members of that new ensemble. Already, Tuten added, several of his William Blount students take dual enrollment classes, and as a musician himself, he remembers well being starstruck the first time he played on a grand theater stage at The Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville.
“I was gobsmacked by the magnitude of it and the spectacle of performing on that stage and in that theater,” he said. “Our kids see a lot and know about Maryville College, but they may not realize we have one of the best performance venues to be played in right here at the Clayton Center, just a few minutes from our school.”