Last night, students in the Percussion Ensemble, Concert/Symphonic Band, and Wind Ensemble played at their last concert of the year. This was also the last concert of seniors’ high school career. The different groups played 14 songs between them. The Percussion and Wind Ensembles each played five, and Concert/Symphonic Band played 4. The night ended in a special way with a band-modified version of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” which was a throwback to the seniors’ middle school years.

Before the onset of COVID-19 the then middle-schoolers had the opportunity to pick a song that they wanted to play.  However, due to the lockdown, the class lost the chance to perform the song. Throughout the year the now seniors had been asking band director, Tadd Morris, for the chance to play their old song of choice. He obliged to the joy of many seniors, and they got to play the song with their conductor from middle school, just as they would have done years ago. “It’s my last concert as a senior, we didn’t get to play it in eighth grade. I really wanted to play it one last time. If I’m completely honest, I was almost in tears when I was playing it. It was so emotional. It’s my last concert and it’s bringing something back from the beginning of my career,” said Ellie Lao.

Mr. Mines was the band director at Valley View and was asked to come and conduct the song. He is very respected by many of the students, most of which learned music because of him. The current Wind Ensemble had never played “Don’t Stop Me Now” with him until yesterday evening. Despite this, the song went smoothly and the instrumentalists seemed pleased by their performance. The crowd also enjoyed the concert, with many granting it a standing ovation at the end. However, cheers were loudest when Mr. Mines was invited onto the stage. “It was humbling and an honor. It’s hard to describe because there’s just so much love in the room, it’s hard to know how to put it into words, but it’s really a great feeling. I’m really happy that all of these students I’ve had over the years are still playing music. To me, that’s the most important thing. That’s the thing that makes me really happy, that I have students that love music,” said Mines.