Kingston Public Schools

Kingston Band earns "I" rating at district

By Jon Dohrer

DURANT — There's more good news from musicians at Kingston. On the heels of the outstanding achievement of the vocal musicians at solo & ensemble contest, the Kingston High School Concert Band earned Superior ratings across the board at district.

The band earned "I" ratings from all three judges in its stage performance, and also rated Superior in sight-reading at the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association District Band Contest last week at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The achievement qualifies the band for state competition April 15-16 at Ada.

The band hopes to continue to improve before the state meet. Senior Zach Bailey identified sight-reading as one specific area in which more work is needed.

"We didn't sight-read as well as we could have," Bailey said. "We started out okay, and then we kind of fell apart a little toward the end. So we could do that a little better."

Director Orien Landis agreed that the reading could have gone better, and added a couple of other areas for improvement.

"We just need to polish, really," Landis said. "We had a few tuning issues, and we need to work on our articulation and balance."

Landis said the band will take a brief break from practicing its contest pieces and work on some fun arrangements for its spring concert, including the jazzy theme from "The Family Guy."

The band is under the direction of Landis and Assistant Director John Ivie. Senior musicians are Bailey, Macey Bayles, Autumn Boswell, Destiny Hughes, Aaron King, Preston Lunsford, Calli Rogers, Colten Weaver, Taylor Williams and Raylee Woodward.

Landis added that the support of parents and the community has also been vital to the group's success.