Being skilled enough to join talented musicians is a privilege that gives student musicians a chance to play at the college level. That is what junior Mikayla Evans was lucky enough to do on Feb. 21 through Feb. 23.

Evans attended this years Regional Band that was held at Neshannock High School with her euphonium.

Regional Band, or Regionals, is a group of talented students that qualified for Regionals by attending district band. At Regionals, these talented students get together and play college level pieces before finally performing a concert.

For Evans to qualify for Regional Band, she had to audition and be placed as first or second chair at district band. In Evans’ case, she got second chair so she was able to experience Regional Band.

Regional Band can help student musicians to improve their musical talents and experience a band that plays, practices and reworks the music with serious intentions about performing.

Regional Band musicians are the top chairs of District Band and are more experienced than regular student musicians. These student musicians play with such experience, that they are capable of accomplishing many musical talents.

“Regional Band is different because the kids are more experienced, and take things a lot more seriously. It’s also more difficult,” Evans said.

Regionals helps students who plan on becoming professional musicians, music teachers or even music enthusiasts. Regional Band is a way to help young musicians gain experience with professional performing.

Evans enjoyed the experience that she got to encounter during her time with the group of students who performed with the Regional Band.

Regional Band is a step up from the experiences that can be encountered at District Band and County Band. Although Regionals may take more work to qualify to perform compared to county or district band, it still requires hard work and sometimes talent to earn the privilege of performing with such an incredible selection of students.

Talent, experience and hard work are the traits of the performers that qualified to play at Regional Band. Regional Band requires the best of the best performers to step up to the plate and show off their incredible talents.

Those talents are what makes Regional Band an enjoyable experience. Talent and hard work make a performer the best at playing their particular instrument.

“At regional band I got to see the world of high school musicians outside of little Beaver County, all of the kids were super talented, and it gave me a chance to get to play in a band that was close to being on a professional level,” Evans said.

Evans and her euphonium traveled to Neshannock to experience Regional Band, and with her experience, Evans now has an idea of what makes an incredible performer. Performing at Regionals gave Evans a new light of performing in concerts with her instrument.