Hosted after school at Chabot College in Hayward, Calif., music students in the HHS Wind Ensembles will be attending the Chabot Wind Band Festival on Feb. 27.

The event’s main purpose is to offer tailored feedback to the ensembles, not just serve as competition with scores and rankings, director of bands Ben Scharf said.

“It is purely for the educational experience,” Scharf said. “In my mind, a great educational opportunity is to get great advice, but also for the students in these ensembles to get the opportunity to work with someone who has mastered their craft.”

Those who will offer audio and written critiques at Chabot after the ensembles’ performances are among some of the highest-caliber musicians, Scharf added.

“One of [the Chabot judges] will do a clinic with that ensemble to help them play better, sound better, and bring out the musicality of their performance,” Scharf said. “There are college professors from around the Bay Area who are going to be there judging. There’s the director at Northwestern University, who’s a huge name, and he is going to be there to give some feedback as well.”

While the event will also be a fun way to explore music, sophomore and euphonium player Shourya Batra said it is a critical opportunity for musicians to see the underlying meaning of their performance.

“I hope the band can go beyond just what’s on the page and see the emotion through the music,” Batra said. “Music is emotion beyond words. I hope the band can take the emotion, rather than what’s on the page, and listen along with the harmonies and melodies and basses and come together to create emotion through this.”

Sophomore and trombonist Joshua Luo said Chabot is particularly significant because it allows for connections with bands beyond FUHSD and new learning experiences.

“I hope that we, as Wind 2, can explore music more, listen to what other bands are playing and improve our technique as well,” Luo said. “Getting more note accuracy and playing with better tone quality [is crucial].”

With bands across the Bay Area attending, Chabot is a good way to foster local camaraderie and bring novel ideas to the table, Luo said.

This is the first time that we’re going, so it’s a way for us to connect with different bands,” Luo said. “I want to see what different bands are playing in their music compared to what we do.”