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Highlands Middle School band tunes up for Veterans Day performance at City Hall

Several young women play flutes behind music stands in a classroom with a "Jazz Band" banner in the background.

The sound of music filled the Highlands Middle School band room Wednesday morning as a group of eighth-graders practiced pieces they will perform at White Plains’ Veterans Day ceremony.

A young woman with pink-streaked hair plays a silver flute in the foreground, while other musicians and blue chairs are blurred in the background.

Band teacher and flutist Jennifer Pyne kept the rehearsal moving briskly, correcting notes, reminding students to watch their breathing and urging them to sit tall as they brandished their flutes, clarinets, saxophones, trumpets, trombones and percussion instruments.

“Good posture. Straight back, like someone’s pulling a string,” Ms. Pyne told the young musicians before counting them in.

It is still early in the school year, and the performances remain a work in progress. When the notes didn’t quite come together, the teacher offered a suggestion that drew some smiles: “What if — and I know this is a crazy idea — what if we all play in the same key?”

A woman in a grey hoodie conducts a group of musicians in a classroom setting.

Ms. Pyne stopped frequently to work with individual sections, reinforce fundamentals and make sure students understood their parts. During a percussion passage, she singled out one student for encouragement: “I love the sound you’re making with the cymbals!”

The rehearsals are building toward an annual tradition for the Highlands eighth-grade band. The City of White Plains has invited the group to perform at its Veterans Day ceremony at City Hall on the morning of Nov. 11.

“The kids are taking their day off, and they’re coming in to perform for the veterans,” Ms. Pyne said at the end of the class. “The city invites us every year.”
The band is preparing “March of the Armed Forces,” a medley that she said will likely also be performed at the school’s winter concert. At City Hall, the students will perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” as well.

For now, however, there is plenty of rehearsing ahead. As Ms. Pyne reminded one student during practice: “You gotta practice. I need you.”
 

Several young women play flutes behind music stands in a classroom with a "Jazz Band" banner in the background.
A row of young boys play trumpets in the foreground, seated in front of blue chairs and a blurred room background.
A young boy in a blue hoodie plays a brass euphonium in the foreground, with other musicians and instruments blurred in the background.
Two young women play the clarinet and flute in the foreground, while other students with brass instruments are blurred in the background.
A young girl plays a silver flute in the foreground, while other students with brass instruments are blurred in the background.
A young girl in a headscarf plays a glockenspiel in the foreground, with a music stand and rows of blue chairs in the background.
A young person in a red shirt holds two large cymbals in the foreground against a blurred indoor background.
A young boy in a blue patterned hoodie and red plaid pants plays a saxophone while seated in a room with other musicians and music stands in the background.
Two young boys talk in the foreground, one with a surprised expression, against a background of blue chairs.