The Second Annual ExtravaBandza!, a Carmel Clay Schools showcase concert featuring 1,150 middle and high school band students, will be held May 20 in the Carmel High School Gymnasium at 6:30 p.m.
The concert will feature two special numbers performed by all 1,150 students in a mass band: “The National Anthem” and “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Students also will perform in groups of grade and ability level: sixth-graders; seventh-graders; eighth-graders; ninth-graders and CHS Wind Symphony III and IV; CHS Wind Symphonies I and II; and a solo performance by Wind Symphony I. The percussion sections of the mass ensemble will also present a “special” percussion piece.
Internationally renowned composer, Michael Sweeney, is the guest conductor for the concert. Sweeney is director of band publications for Hal Leonard Corp. in Milwaukee, Wisc., one of the largest publishers of printed music in the world. Since Sweeney joined the company in 1982, Hal Leonard Corp. has published more than 500 of his compositions and arrangements. He is a 1977 graduate of Indiana University.
ExtravaBandza! also will be the final concert conducted by Richard Saucedo, Carmel High School Performing Arts chairman and director of bands. Saucedo will retire after 30 years of teaching at CHS at the end of May. A reception in honor of Saucedo will be in the main cafeteria after the concert.
The “The National Anthem,” which will open the concert, was arranged by Saucedo, with specially-written parts added for sixth- through eighth-graders. The reverent and moving arrangement has been performed since 2001 by the CHS Marching Band, in honor of victims of 9/11.
Tickets for ExtravaBandza! are available to the public online at: https://www.totalgatesolutions.com/ SportingEventTicketCalendar.aspx?schoolId=279 Ticket prices are $5 for adults and $3 for students and senior citizens. Children under 5 will be admitted free.
Parking shuttles will run throughout the evening between the high school stadium parking lot and the high school. All proceeds from the concert will supplement the band programs at Carmel Middle School, Clay Middle School, Creekside Middle School and Carmel High School.