Hubbard and Liberty bands perform annual exchange concert at Stambaugh Auditorium

The seventh and eighth grade concert bands from Liberty and Hubbard School Districts recently performed a combined “exchange” concert at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Each band performed several songs before combining to perform two songs together.

Liberty’s seventh grade band performed the “Theme to The Avengers” and Tyler S. Grant’s “Zero to Sixty.”

Hubbard’s seventh grade performed songs entitled “Blazing Bugles” and the Village People’s “YMCA.”

Liberty’s eighth grade band performed Christina Huss’ “As Spirits Soar” and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.”

Hubbard’s eighth grade performed Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” and Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”

“The students come together and perform two pieces of music that they’ve never rehearsed before together,” said Michael Summers, Liberty band director. “They’ve rehearsed it separately, of course, but now they can step on stage and, and put it together in one shot.”

Combined, the seventh grade bands performed Robert W. Smith’s “Ultimatum” and Randall Standridge’s “Afterburn: Relaunch.”

Combined, the 8th grade bands performed Randall Standridge’s “Darklands March” and “Junkyard Jam” by the Alfred Concert Band.

“The great thing about this event is that it brings two communities together that have never played next to each other,” said Dan Nestich, Hubbard Band Director. “It’s an expression of this universal language, because they’ve never played together, but they’re reading the same music and coming together to perform it, which is awesome.”

“We’ve been doing this for 20 years,” Summers added. “It started off with our two high school groups performing in preparation for contests, and then with schedule changes it morphed into an eighth grade event, and then into a seventh and eighth grade performance.”

Summers added that the bands are fortunate to have use of Stambaugh Auditorium.

“It’s wonderful for our students to perform here because it’s one of the nicest auditoriums anywhere.”