Snapshot: OC Middle School Bands Get a Taste of the Big Game
All eyes were firmly glued to the field during Friday night’s Orange County High School (OCHS) football game against Fluvanna, but those who were using their ears may have noticed another Orange County tradition going on.
On Oct. 13, the OCHS marching band welcomed middle-schoolers from Locust Grove and Prospect Heights to play with them in the stands during the big game. Ruben Castaneda, who has served as Prospect Heights Middle School band director for 14 years, said that the annual tradition began as a way to get a younger generation of students interested in playing music.
“It was to try to get music promoted and also to revive a sense of pride in the music community here,” he explained. “It’s how we're reaching out to our middle school kids to let them know, hey, this is the next level. That's how it started originally. and it's grown to what it is now.”
Castaneda noted that getting kids involved in music at an early age not only equips them with a practical skill, but provides them with a supportive community in which to develop their social abilities.
“It gives them an outlet of expression,” he said. “I have kids that don't speak in other classes, but they're participating in my class. It's a lifelong skill that I get to teach.”
Above all, the program helps students to develop pride in their accomplishments as young musicians and to understand their potential in the years to come.
“It's fun,” Castaneda shared. “These guys usually are starting out with undeveloped, non-musician brains. By the time they do this, some of these kids have only been playing for one year, and they already get to see where they came from and where they are now. It's a miraculous thing — not only to get to see this, but I've been teaching for a long time, and I have students with doctorates when they get older. That's cool.”