This year Band UIL competitions are going to take place on March 6-8. The Concert Band will perform on March 6. The Symphonic Band will perform on March 7. The Honor Band will perform on March 8.

Most people probably don’t know what Band UIL is, or they mistakenly assume it is like academic UIL. Only the three highest bands get to participate in UIL. Those three bands are the Concert Band, the Symphonic Band and the Honor Band. Students in one of those bands must be passing all your classes to be eligible. Other bands, like Corbett, will be there too.

Before the actual UIL competition, there is something called Pre-UIL which helps students prepare for the real thing. Pre-UIL takes place Friday, February 17. There are judges there to tell students what you need to work on afterward.

Lexie Payne and Zoe Clark, 8th graders, are both in the honor band and say that to them, UIL means a band competition, not academics.

They say that UIL is very important to them. “It helps me get a sense of things, like paying attention to my surroundings and being organized. Keeping things in time,” Payne said passionately. Clark says it’s important to her because, “Band is really important to me and it’s important to do well in competitions.”

The girls say that their band has three pieces of music that are pretty hard. “I’d say it’s pretty difficult but we can handle it,” Payne said confidently.

This year UIL takes place at Burbank High School. “I’m a little nervous about performing at Burbank because I never have before but I think we’ll be fine.” says Clark.

Wish our bands good luck during competition! Hopefully they can all bring back sweepstakes!