North Hills High School Wind Ensemble performs at music teachers' East Coast convention

The North Hills High School Wind Ensemble is in Rochester, N.Y. to be a featured performer in the National Association for Music Education’s Eastern Division Convention on April 13-14. The conventions are held every other year.

The ensemble’s director, Len Lavelle, describes this year’s convention as a professional development opportunity for teachers from all over the East Coast. As part of that, NAFME selects a group from the area at large, by blind audition, to be a model group and to perform for the convention audience.

“That’s the opportunity that we were given,” Lavelle said. “So, we submitted live recordings of last year’s band. We were invited to perform as the model for all of the band directors on the East Coast that are attending the convention. It’s the highest honor for a concert band within the National Association for Music Education.”

It’s nothing new for the students in North Hills High School’s wind ensemble, which has been invited to play at either this event or the state convention every year for the last decade, except for 2021 due to covid.

They will perform on Thursday, April 13 in front of an audience of people from all over the country. Lavelle’s colleague, Lucas Beaver, also conducts the band.

“It is something that we’re really proud of,” Lavelle said. “I think that consistency comes back to the choices that we make as an organization. We very much value student involvement in the process. Our students are part of our process of creating how we want to live as an organization. We talk often about if we live well, we have a chance to play well. We value positive role modeling and make it a point of pride to pass the group on better than we found it.”

One of the wind ensemble’s positive role models is Katie Miller, 18, a senior from Ross, who plays flute and piccolo.

“We have been working on performing at this convention for the past year,” Miller said. “It’s a great honor to be able to perform together and to show all the people attending how awesome our program is. I think it’s because we all love each other. We’re like a little family. The wind ensemble is a class, but we also work outside of school, and it’s just a great community. We get to create a lot of memories together and travel to places and learn more about music and how to thrive as a music ensemble.”

They will perform a commission piece called “Shalom” by Dan Forrest, among other works.

“It’s a really big accomplishment,” said Elaine Adamiak, 17, a senior french horn player from the North Hills. “It’s super exciting that we get to do this. We really owe it to the previous wind ensembles that came before us. They’ve gotten us to this point.”

The previous wind ensembles included three of Adamiak’s older sisters: Bonnie and Christie, both french horn players; and Autumn, a percussionist. “They’re one of the main reasons why I wanted to be in band. I get to carry on the legacy of what my older sisters got to do,” Adamiak said.

James Polen, 17, a senior from Ross was encouraged to play the oboe when he was choosing an instrument.

“In elementary school, my band director said I would have more opportunity if I picked an uncommon instrument. So he had me start on oboe, and I’ve just kept with that since then,” Polen said. “It’s got a cool community of people who play the instrument, and it’s a kind of instrument that you can play in any kind of setting.”

And now Polen gets to play his oboe in front of a large and prominent audience.

“I’m super excited to get to go with this group,” he said. “It’s such an incredible group of people, and it’s awesome to make music with people that you’ve worked really hard with over the course of a year.”

Lavelle, however, said making it to a national convention is not really the goal here. It’s about the process.

“Our goal was always to allow our students to understand and achieve excellence and have a life-changing experience through music and to make the best possible music that we can and be the best possible people that we can.

“Because, we do believe that music changes lives.”