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MHS takes home gold at TBMF
The Marianas High School Concert Band took home gold, their second year in a row, for their performance at the annual Tumon Bay Music Festival in Guam.
The MHS Concert Band, which only started performing at the Tumon Bay Music Festival last year, took home gold again for the Band and Orchestra category. The group was also awarded the Command Performance award for Bands and Orchestra.
The MHS Concert Band will return to the festival this Saturday to perform for the final night.
According to Joyce Espinosa, a saxophone player for the MHS Concert Band, winning gold means achieving the highest level of performance at the festival.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean we were first place because others can receive gold. It is like the level of the performance. There’s bronze, silver, and gold, depending on the rubric,” she said.
Espinosa said the group takes pride in the fact that they’re new to the festival, with just two years’ experience, and have received the honor in both years.
“So in the two years that we’ve been participating, we got the gold twice now. We feel so happy and proud because our band has been through a lot. We lost our conductor this year and so we had to ask Mrs. Atsuko Eck to help us, even though she wasn’t a teacher at MHS. Just the fact that we were able to go and represent the CNMI already made us feel so proud, but getting the gold made us feel ecstatic. It’s been a long journey for us,” she said.
Espinosa added that the fact that they were also awarded their first Command Performance award made this year’s experience extra special.
“We just want to recognize our previous band conductor, Ms. Tamiko Winkfield, our new conductor, Mrs. Atsuko Eck, for really helping us to succeed, and our chaperones, Ms. Christine Tudela, Mrs. Emilisa Norita, and Mr. Jericho Tobias, for making the trip possible in the first place,” she said.
Also receiving recognition at the festival was Hopwood Middle School’s HDMP T-Woah, which received gold in their group performance and Saipan Community School’s Ukulele Band for taking home silver.
