April was a month full of good music and great performances for De La Salle High School. The Concert Band, nearly 70 musicians strong, from De La Salle and Carondelet, took a trip to Chicago in mid-April to play in the Festival of Gold, an invitational festival featuring high school musicians from all over the country. As the highest-scoring ensemble in the competition, the band was invited to play in the Encore Concert in Chicago Symphony Hall.
On Saturday April 28, the Concert Band was back in the neighborhood to perform at the California Music Education Assocation Band and Orchestra Festival at San Ramon Valley High (CMEA Bay Section, Area II). Larry B. Colón, director of bands, reports, “Our students received the highest possible rating, a Unanimous Superior, with scores of 94, 94, 93, and a 93 in Sight Reading.”
To cap the musical year, the Spring Concert on May 1, featuring all the musical ensembles of De La Salle and Carondelet, filled the 780-seat Hofmann Theatre at the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek for a program of sacred and secular music with instruments and voices.