Woodland hosts record-setting band performance

Woodland — Woodland High School played host to the 41st annual Mass Band Middle School Concert, which featured 436 musicians from 10 Southwest Washington schools. The turnout is a record for the event. Preparation for the concert started at the beginning of the school year, and each school rehearsed the selected music individually before joining together for the one-day event in which the bands performed as one large ensemble. The students met at Woodland around 1 p.m. and rehearsed as a group for 2 1/2 hours. Ten custodians put out and organized chairs for all the musicians. “Assembling and seating that many students was the biggest challenge,” Bryana Steck, band director for Woodland Public Schools, said in a release from the district. “Once everyone got settled, the practices went very well and we were ready to perform for an audience.”