Wind Ensemble Performs in one of the Most Prestigious Band Events

Braving Chicago’s subzero temperatures and intense winds, music students from Dreyfoos got to visit a retro Karen-theme diner, attend a Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass concert, and most importantly perform in one of the most selective band clinics in the world: The Midwest Clinic.

Wind Ensemble Performs in one of the Most Prestigious Band Events

This winter, Dreyfoos band students traveled to Chicago to attend The Midwest Clinic
Story by Makena Senzon

Braving Chicago’s subzero temperatures and intense winds, music students from Dreyfoos got to visit a retro Karen-theme diner, attend a Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass concert, and most importantly perform in one of the most selective band clinics in the world: The Midwest Clinic.

The Midwest Clinic International Band, Orchestra and Music Conference, an annual event with attendees from over 40 different countries, is a prestigious educational opportunity for band students providing “an array of clinics and exhibits, as well as access to music and teaching icons,” as their website states. The 76th conference, taking place from Dec. 19 - 22, coincided with the school’s midterms but considering how this clinic was one of band director Evan Rogovin’s major goals to attend, the administration arranged for all band members to take another time so they would be able to attend.

“It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” band junior and bassoonist Angelique Arfa said.

Last school year, the former wind ensemble (Dreyfoos’ highest concert band) qualified for the clinic by submitting records of their Music Performance assessments songs and recommendation letters from three separate college music directors. According to the Co-Vice President of Band Council, senior and percussionist Jessica Weinberg, the musicians came into school this year with extra weekly rehearsal to begin “working [their] butts off to get ready for it”.

“There's definitely some pressure and sometimes there's stress in rehearsals trying to get everyone to focus on a long school day,” Arfa said in September after one of the early rehearsals. “So there's pressure but in the end, I feel like we are going to pull through and it's going to be a great performance.”

At these rehearsals, Arfa commented how Mr. Rogovin continued to challenge them to be “not just to be the best band in the county or the state, [because they’re] trying to be the best band in the country.”

The clinic, an international event, attended by many of the “big names" in the band world allowed the band not only to showcase their pieces and talents in front of Chicago locals and concert attendees but to meet and network with bands across the globe.

“I was kind of overwhelmed by it,” band junior and clarinetist Nihar Bhavsar said. “I just like I saw so many people and they all seem like really high up in the band world but like it was nice to see other schools there.”

Despite the dozens of other impressive school ensembles there. This event was not a tournament and as Bhavsar put it “getting into the clinic is the actual competition. But when you're inside of the clinic, it's just about the experience.”

“You can't compare your performance to other [band’s] performances, because they're all different,” Weinberg said. “We have different training. And we have different teachers, of course, so they're going to sound different. They're all going to have their flaws, and they're all going to have their pros. But you can't really compare them.”

The wind ensemble performance itself, around 50 minutes of music of all different difficulties levels, was on a stage entirely different from Meyer Hall at Dreyfoos, a grand ballroom of sorts where the room’s acoustic was vastly different and led to a “weird” feeling when the band learned to adjust during their final rehearsal.

“But, in that rehearsal room, I felt like this is like our best band yet,” Bhavsar said. “And of course, our [following] concert was amazing too.”

After the performance, many students and even Mr. Rogovin began to cry and they together were able to accomplish one of the most “sought-after” events in the music world.

“It was one of the best moments that I've ever had in the band department,” Weinberg said. “It was Mr. Rogovin’s dream for like forever to get into The Midwest Clinic and he finally got it with last year's band and this year we were able to perform.

Weinberg, whose first band trip had been with her Bak Middle School of the Arts band as they too went to Chicago in 2018, said being back in the city surrounded by her fellow musicians felt like “a full circle moment.”

For others, as they toured Millennium Park to take pictures with the iconic bean or ventured to the 94th floor of the John Hancock Center to view the skyscrapers from 360°, Chicago felt cool, both in terms of the experiences and chilly temperatures.

“I personally love enjoying the cold and on the day of the blizzard, I got a couple of friends and I and we just all went out in the snow,” Bhavsar said. “We had a snowball fight and we were freezing to death.”

While the snow added an experience rare for most Floridan kids, it did make the flight home a little bit chaotic for all the students and chaperones. After the original flight was canceled, the band was able to make it out the next day and arrived home safely on Dec. 23.

Now as the new semester starts, band students finished making up all of their missed midterms and the band program continues to use the knowledge gained at the clinic from other directors and bands to improve their technique and overall playing.

“It was just a huge honor,” Bhavsar said, reflecting on the clinic a month later. “This is probably the best thing you can get into in the band world. It's  the biggest convention and was an incredible opportunity, not only for us but also just representing Florida as a whole.”