The band students from Thomas Hunter Middle School and Mathews High School have had a busy second semester so far.

The semester began with the All-District Honor Band auditions on Jan. 5. Selected students auditioned for this event (Katelyn James and Edwin Hudgins from THMS and Shannon Enders from MHS).

All three were selected for the honor band out of almost 1,000 total student auditions from Williamsburg, Gloucester, York, Newport News and Hampton schools.

On the weekend prior to District Band, Jan. 25-27, these students, along with Reagan Jackson from THMS and Locke Tucker, Caleb Miller, Sophie Beckley and Megan Zuhowski from MHS, attended the 16th annual Virginia Tech Honor Band.

The students were selected by the faculty and staff at Virginia Tech through a process where their directors nominated 10 students from each school. Out of more than 1,500 nominations from seven states, 500 students were selected to participate in five performing ensembles. The ensembles were conducted by conductors affiliated with the Virginia Tech Department of Music.

The next event to take place was on Feb. 28, at Page Middle School, the THMS/Page/Peasley Honor Band. The band directors of each of the schools decided several years ago to hold their own Honor Band for students who were unable to participate in events which came down to just a few students.

This event involved more 100 students from the three middle school band programs. Wayne Fillingim, MHS band director, led the group.

On March 7, the MHS band attended its first band assessment in more than six years. The assessment, at Lancaster Middle School, was for all of the Northern Neck/Middle Peninsula school concert bands. Mathews received an overall Excellent Rating on stage and a Superior Rating in sight-reading. The band played Grade Level III and IV literature, a task which has not been possible for several years. Finally, 28 students from the

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