MCA Band students Silas Urban and Ella Downey played in the TPSMEA High School All Region band this weekend.  Students who audition for this opportunity must play both a slow and fast etude for judges among several hundred other students in their region to be selected to play for this concert. Miss Downey played saxophone while Mr. Urban played clarinet.  Both students played in the high school all-region band consisting of 9th-12th graders and 8th graders who qualified, under the direction of Brian Merrill, conductor for the Mansfield Wind Symphony.  Downey and Urban arrived Friday at 5 PM and practiced until 9 PM and then had a full day of rehearsal Saturday before performing their pieces in front of parents, instructors, and other musicians that Saturday evening. All-Region is a unique experience because students are not given months to learn music and instead, have only about 10 hours with a complete ensemble to learn their part and perfect difficult pieces.  Urban and Downey played the following pieces of musical literature: Celebration Fanfare by Pinkzebra, Fanfare for the City of Vienna by Strauss, arr. Beck, Ave Marie from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers arr. Beck, La Tregenda by Puccini, arr Beck, Fantasy on a Japanese Folk Song by Samual Hazo and Everyday Heroes by Nathan Hervey. One of the most unique experiences of this region weekend was getting to meet Mr. Nathan Hervey, a composer for one of the pieces.  Mr. Hervey permitted TPSMEA to play his piece for only the second time it has been heard.  Prior to this, the Mansfield Wind Symphony was the only ensemble to play this piece.  Everyday Heroes, the piece they played by Mr. Merril, was a tribute to first responders.