As I wrap up my senior year in band and prepare to perform one last time as a high school musician, I want to give thanks to everyone who supported my journey in high school band. And all of the memories that I made. 

Having been lucky enough to be part of an award winning band program and getting that experience to march as a freshman without being an alternative marcher for the four marching productions that I have been a part of, that experience made me become a better marcher.

My senior year was the first time that I was a part of a feature quartet in our show, ‘Shout from the Rooftops.’ Being my final show, this caused me to have a bittersweet moment to know that this was my final ever competitive season as a marcher.

I was grateful to be a part of the clarinet quartet which  pushed me to become confident in my playing and made me more accountable for the memorization of my own music. I remember one time when we finally got the stage, I remember I did not have to stand awkwardly in the middle of the field. 

During these rehearsals where we ran through the beginning of ‘part one,’ the four of us, myself, Adhish Santas, Ethan Cuevas and Annabel Swanson, would goof off while we were not required to play on certain runs. 

Another memory from this show was when the four of us would walk in a line, marching to the tap of Luca Colaruotolo’s snare drum when we walked to the warm up lot at Plano East Marching Invitational.

Also during my senior year, I was gratefully able to go on the band “California Trip” that happened during my senior year spring break.

While others might go on big vacations with friends for their senior year spring break, I chose to go to California with my band friends because I never been to DisneyLand or Universal Studios in my life, so it was a cool experience.

On the trip, I remember my group who were a bunch of percussion members. I remember that we bought these Yoshi Hats when we were at Universal Studios Hollywood. That was well worth 40 dollars for those hats. 

That next day when we went back to DisneyLand, all of us coordinated to wear it throughout the parks, DisneyLand and Disney California Adventure. Throughout the parks there were people who talked about our hats being that it was “Mario Day.”

One lady literally took a photo of all of the “Yoshi’s” in a line without herself being in the photo. So that was a crazy experience with the Yoshi Hats. 

I became friends with the percussion kids during my junior year in high school, when we went to San Antonio for Bands of America San Antonio Super Regionals.

During this trip, I remember that after having a crazy day of traveling, from one bus getting a flat tire to another bus getting lost in SA. 

But when we finally got there, I was sitting with these freshman percussionists, Jake Thornton, Justin Cotter, Andre Fierro and Alan Anderson, at the Mexican Restaurant near downtown SA, with Papel Picado covering the walkways in the above. At this moment Jake tried to mess with Justin using a plastic knife and Andre tried to throw his food towards Jake. This made me laugh because they all were trying to be goofballs and that’s how I know them as their personalities. 

And after that, we all became friends and continued to be friends through my senior year; they are considered to be my closest friends. 

Happening later in my junior year, I advanced, on the bass clarinet, to be a part of the Texas Music Educators Association Region 24, region band member who performed with other students from Frisco, Little Elm, Prosper and McKinney High Schools. 

At this point in my life, my freshman year self would be super shocked that I made into a region band. And when the results came out in early Dec. I was super shocked by the results. 

Three of my closest friends, Jake Park, Adhish Santas and Max Lee also advanced to the region and though we were in different bands; there were five bands in the region, we managed to come listen and support each other at the concert.

In the bottom band, “concert band” one of my other friends, Alex Alsina and Andy Warren, took me out to go eat during our break, and we cherished the moments at Canes. 

But the friendships with Adhish, Jake and Max began during my sophomore year, when we were in Symphonic Band as clarinet players. 

As the four highest chairs in our section, Jake and Max would play first part of the University Interscholastic League [UIL] music, that Mr. John Riley Kirwan chose out of, while me and Adhish would play the second part. 

But the memory that I would laugh at would be when the four of us would play the “Piccolo” solo of one of our UIL pieces, Third Suite by Robert Jager, after Jake found out the corresponding notes on our Bb clarinet that the piccolo soloist played. 

That was a great memory of the four of us and we are still really great friends to this day. I am very grateful for their friendship and humor during band class. 

Finally my freshman year helped shape me as a musician. This was also the same school year of the global pandemic that caused us to wear masks and made marching band super boring. 

My freshman year really caused me to go from a player who could not play his scales out from a paper bag to a college music major who will be attending Brigham Young University for music education. Neugent caused me to change my outlook in music and grow my love in music. 

I am very grateful for being a part of a band program who brings each other up and the connections with others causes positive experiences and memories just like I was able to experience here at Rock Hill.

Looking back to my freshman year, I really accomplished a lot of things in a short amount of time, created new friendships and learned new lessons that would stick with me for the rest of my life.

Signing out,

Jacob Turner