GREENSBORO, N.C. — This year has been a tough one for band members at Mendenhall Middle School in Greensboro.
Middle school is difficult enough, but now you have to work with band practice... on Zoom!?
"It was a mess. It was a hot mess," clarinet player Janiah Rorie said, "We would have people muted on Zoom telling them to stop playing but they couldn't hear us because they were playing and, yeah, it was crazy."
Despite the technological hurdles posed during the pandemic, Mendenhall Middle band director Brent Davis is optimistic Tuesday. The sun is out, his students are laughing and his class is prepped to perform its first public concert in more than a year and a half.
"I'm just so excited it's happening," Davis said. "There was a period when I didn't think it was going to happen, but music is back in the schools!"
Davis' love for his students is evident in the energetic baton waving and repeated pleas to no one in particular after jovial moments behind the music stand. It's one thing to manage two dozen 13-year-olds day after day... but to enjoy it the way Davis does gives fresh meaning to 'life-long passion.'
"This is why I love working with middle schoolers," Davis said.
All the training and passion in the world likely could not have prepared Davis for the task of Tuesday's concert. He conducted the faculty and cars and parents into their proper place and proper time. He conducted his students through half-time renditions of orchestral music you hear at middle school band concerts. Mostly, he conducted himself in a way that matches his reputation.
"Mr. Davis has been wonderful," mother of Lindsay Skordas, Stephanie said, "He's been wonderful on Zoom and it's been wonderful to see how he has put together all this. I think it is going to be great."
However, even months of preparation, a socially distanced crowd and all the confidence in the world may not have been able to save what happened next.
"It needed a little work," Janiah said.
By the student's own admission, they wished they played better.
The notes, Davis believes, hardly mattered on a day like today.
"To me, it's good they want to do better. That's a good sign. That's their old selves coming through," Davis said.
"The journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step, that's what I've been telling them all along," Davis continued. "It's been so long since we've joined together in a group to form music. Something like this really makes them come together out of their shells. They find a place that they belong."
"I am so proud of them."