By Erica Thomas, managing editor
TRUSSVILLE — The Hewitt-Trussville High School Wind Ensemble is celebrating yet another achievement.
Just days after finding out the group would perform at the All Southeastern Regional Concert Festival in Atlanta next March, the ensemble got another boost. The HT Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at the 2022 Alabama Music Educators Association (AMEA) Conference in January.
“That is basically the biggest honor that you can have in our state,” Band Director Michael Guzman said. “This is the first time that the high school has ever been accepted.”
The conference will be held in Birmingham. A committee of music educators selected the ensemble after a recording was submitted.
“The recordings I submitted were just our regular, standard output,” Guzman said. “They were our concerts. The level of expectation is so high that you’re not getting anything different for a concert for mom and dad that you would at a concert for the top educators in the state.”
The most interesting thing about this group being selected, Guzman said, is that the same group performed at the same conference when they were in Middle School in 2017.
“There are kids that will never do this and so these kids have the honor of getting to go twice, which is just mind-blowing,” Guzman explained.
Guzman believes the wind ensemble’s drive comes from years of instruction by inspirational leaders.
“I think that particular group was pushed and they rose to the standard of what the band program is,” said Guzman. “And now the standard is higher and that’s just our regular operating procedure.”