UIL is essentially the STAAR test for band. UIL consists of a prepared concert performance and sightreading evaluation. For the concert portion, we choose 2 songs from a list as well as 1 march that we work on for 3-4 months during the spring semester. For sightreading, we are given a song neither the students or director has ever seen before, allowed to discuss it (without playing) for 8 minutes, then must perform it and are given a rating. Judges rate both the concert and sightreading performance - a 1 is the highest rating possible and a 5 is the lowest.

This year we have combined the Wind Symphony and Honors Band students to create one UIL group. All F2F students in those groups are part of the group as well as any virtual students in Wind Symphony or Honors Band who opted IN for this evaluation back in January. We will be performing together as a Varsity group from HMS.

Normally each 7/8 Advanced Band performs at UIL as its own group. Wind Symphony = Varsity; Honors Band = Non-Varsity; Symphonic Band = Sub Non-Varsity.

During the week of March 8-12, we will be having 2 extra UIL rehearsals. Those rehearsals will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 9 & 10 from 10:00-11:30am in the HMS cafeteria. All UIL students who are ABLE to attend are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to be at these rehearsals.

Because playing an instrument relies so much on muscle memory, being off for 2 weeks (after missing 1 from the winter storms) makes it very difficult to get back to our high performance level in time for UIL after Spring Break. Thank you for understanding and making plans to be at these important rehearsals!