Hersey's band ready for big stage

After months of rehearsals, and meeting with guest conductors and composers, Hersey High School's symphonic band members are ready for the big show.

They were selected as one of five high school bands in the world to perform at the 61st annual Midwest Clinic, an international band and orchestra conference taking place this week at the Chicago Hilton & Towers.

"Playing at this clinic is the most significant musical accomplishment in the history of our school," says Scott Casagrande, Hersey band director. "We began practicing for the concert in June and have been working diligently throughout the marching season."

Two other suburban schools are among the jazz combos and small ensembles invited. They are the Neuqua Valley High School chamber symphony from Naperville and the New Trier High School jazz ensemble.

"It's an international clinic, so groups from all over the world audition and submit tapes," says Steve Betz, a band director from Bradley, Ill. "It's a huge honor to be selected to perform."

Hersey's students take the stage at 1 p.m. today in the International Ballroom, before an estimated crowd of 2,000 school bandleaders, orchestra directors, professional musicians, and military and college conductors.

During their 45-minute concert, they will play 11 pieces, with all but one written within the last two years. Casagrande adds that seven of the 10 composers of the pieces will be on hand at the concert to see their works performed.

Pieces range from a Brazilian tango to a pair of marches to orchestral music transcribed for a symphonic band.

Besides Scott Casagrande, students will perform under guest conductors Gary Smith, former associate director of bands from the University of Illinois; John Casagrande, music professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.; James F. Keene, current director of bands at the University of Illinois; and Donald Caneva, Hersey's first band director now leading the Coastal Communities Concert Band in San Diego.

The goal of the Midwest Clinic is to raise the standards of music education. Attendance is expected to reach 14,000 during the course of the week, and activities have spilled out to the Palmer House Hilton Hotel and the Congress Plaza Hotel, both in Chicago.

"The whole goal of the concerts is to hear new music," Betz adds, "and then to see these outstanding groups."