After submitting two recordings to the Foundation for Music Education last spring, the Wind Symphony band was named a Mark of Excellence National Wind Band Honors winner.

“Winning this award means that all of the hard work we put into last year actually has an outcome and benefit for the rest of our band careers,” senior Nde Achiri said. “It will help me and other band members become a lot more inspired to try to achieve this again.”

The Mark of Excellence is a national school music competition which honors music programs and their ensembles that reach high standards.

“They (students) are evaluated on their performance by judges who are recognized band and music directors,” Head Band Director Eric Mullins said.

Out of all the recordings entered only the top-half make it to the second round which are recognized as Commended Winners, then the top quarter are named National Winners.

“We began working on several pieces of music in February that might be considered for our program at the April UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest,” Mullins said.

Junior Danielle Jaundoo said band members were very surprised when they won.

“It was a big shock,” Jaundoo said. “We were not confident with those pieces and to us, we (thought we) sounded so bad and out of balance.”

Achiri said he worked hard leading up to the competition.

“It took me a while to prepare for it since there are a lot of little things that go into band,” he said. “Grasping the overall concept is simple but paying attention to detail is what makes a band a lot better.”

With it being a busy time of the year, fitting rehearsals wasn’t easy, Jaundoo said.

“It was really hard because it was around practicing All State music,” she said. “I was also in the orchestra for the musical and on top of all of that, the pieces were really hard.”

Senior Anthony Reilly said he was very proud of the achievement.

“Practicing the music we perform with the band is always going to be important, but the band can’t magically get better,” he said. “The students have to be at a high level of musicianship in order to truly understand the pieces they’re playing and what to do with them.”

Jaundoo, along with 2016 graduates Hala Barodi and Rubai Danish, received outstanding soloist awards.

“It felt reassuring in terms of getting their acknowledgement of my abilities,” Jaundoo said. “I kept the same work ethic and it seems to be working so far.”

The band received a trophy to hang on the wall, and will be featured on a CD of “National Winners” that will be distributed to all of the band programs who entered the contest.

“There are always days that aren’t as good as all the others and it’s always frustrating,” Reilly said. “But now it’ll be less discouraging (because) I know that it could turn out better than it might look at certain times.”