Concert to feature 220 NYM students in grades 5-12

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

A band concert like none other seen in New York Mills for a considerable time will be held this coming Monday, March 9 at the NY Mills School Sport’s Center starting at 7 p.m. The “Massed Band” concert is the first of its kind in recent years at the school and will host the entire 5-12th grade band of about 220 students.

“Other schools do something similar,” said instrumental music teacher Cary Armagost. “It carries different names—I’ve heard it called Band-o-Rama—but when I was growing up in Little Falls, ‘Massed Band’ was the name of it, like we have ‘amassed’ a large group of individuals.”

Armagost participated in the Massed Band event at his school each spring from fifth grade through his senior year and enormously enjoyed the opportunity to be mentored by older students and when his time came, to help those underclassmen who were just beginning their musical journey.

“Having my first year under my belt, I realized the timing of some of these concerts was a little bit awkward,” said Armagost. “Especially the younger grades—the fifth and sixth graders—they would have their December concert and then one in May and that as it for the whole year.”

“So, I just wanted to give them something else to kind of break up the curriculum,” he continued. “That’s the idea, to get them involved in the March concerts that the older students have to have anyways.”

Taking a page out of Little Falls School’s book again, Armagost set up the concert as a dual fundraiser. The concert’s entry admission can be paid one of two ways: first, concert-goers can pay a $2 fee, which will go towards maintenance of school instruments, something which there is no budget for at the moment or they can donate a non-perishable food item that will be donated to the NY Mills Food Shelf for persons in need.

“When I got here, about 60 percent of our school instruments were in some state of disrepair and those that do use school instruments, I feel like I am constantly needing to give an entirely different instrument to use in the meantime because we don’t have the funds to fix them,” said Armagost. “The fee goes directly towards the repair of school instruments.

“We’ve never ticketed for a band concert before,” he continued. “There’s never been an admission fee, so I just wanted to make sure that if we were going to ticket, that this money went to something we were going to use it for, this is money that will literally get used the week after the concert. Having this be a dual fundraiser, not only for that, but also having the entrance fee be a non-perishable food item, it also helps the food shelf. So either a $2 cash fee that goes directly towards the repair of school instruments or an item for the food shelf.”

School band concerts are most often held in the auditorium as there is ample comfortable seating and a stage spacious enough for one of the fifth, sixth, junior high, or senior high bands to perform. Since there is not space in the auditorium to fit all 220 students in band, the venue will be the Sports Center instead.

“We just don’t have the space in the auditorium for it,” said Armagost. “All of the concerts are individual by grade, so it’s cool to showcase them all at once.”

Each grade will have two presentations to highlight their individual talents as separate bands within the school and then will unite as one large ensemble to play the finale of the evening as a unified group. With so many students, Armagost felt that it was important to stagger the seating in order to match younger students with upperclassmen in order for mentorships to take place.

“All the senior high students are going to be delegated with leading those around them and making sure the younger students know where to go,” he said. “The older students will be sitting right next to a student that maybe hardly knows how to play the song, so there’s a chance for mentorship there as well.”

Armagost explained that the finale is largely up to the students to practice, but that as a unified body, the skill levels, talents, and specialties will shine through as one cohesive piece of music. He especially understands how much pressure the younger students are under as newer musicians and is looking forward to seeing the mentorships give them more confidence in their own skills.

“They are going to be doing their darnedest on the song that everyone plays all together,” he said. “It’s like throwing a fifth grader in an algebra class, they might not really know all what’s going on, but that’s the idea behind seating them next to older students. The older students can go ‘hey, maybe you already know that note, but maybe you’ve just never used this rhythm before, here’s what it sounds like,’ then all of a sudden maybe that student can play that spot.” 

The difference in skill level and understanding between the fifth grade band and the senior high band may be quite obvious, but to Armagost, that’s the whole point of this concert. Not only for students to learn to play with musicians of differing skills, but also for the audience to see and appreciate the musical talent from each grade of students and see the progression of their skills as they continue in band throughout their school years.

“I was a part of Massed Band all of my years in band and the thing that’s always the most fun to take away is just the way that the concert is set up,” said Armagost. “The fact that we start by hearing the fifth grade band, then the sixth grade band, the parents get to watch the progression of what these bands ideally are going to sound like as they progress and get older in the band program.

“Here’s what they can sound like by the time they’re in senior band,” he continued. “That’s not just for the parents, but also for the students. The progression of hearing those groups, that’s what’s going to be the fun thing.”

Another special aspect of this first unified concert for Armagost is that the finale piece is a medley, which he first played as a fifth grader in his first Massed Band concert back as a student in Little Falls. When he first saw it on the library shelf during his first year of teaching last year, he knew that he wanted to somehow recreate a unified concert in NY Mills.

“When I saw that in the library, that’s when the wheels started turning in my brain,” he explained. “I would love to play this song, what if I got a Massed Band concert going? I didn’t have the time last year and the concert schedule was already established, so I didn’t have time to add that in. That’s another thing I’m looking forward to, it’s a nice little full-circle moment for me.”

While each grade has been diligently practicing their music to be ready for the concert, the senior high band has even played their songs at the Fine Arts Day celebration in NY Mills and the large group contest in Pillager. The band received their first superior rating since 2023, something that Armagost hopes to be an upward trend in the music department going forward.

“I hope the community takes away from this that no matter how old you are, band can be fun,” he said. “I just hope that they take away that band is fun and can be accessible to everybody, no matter the age.”