Braddock conducts honor band

March 15, 2021 | Braddock conducts honor band | casshcommunications@uwf.edu

After a successful launch of the UWF High School Honor Band in early 2020, UWF took an event-hosting hiatus in Spring 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. However, thanks to high school partners in Santa Rosa County, honor band efforts continued.

Under the direction of Dr. Britton Braddock, UWF visiting assistant professor of music education, the UWF Honor Band offers a premier musical experience for high school students in the Florida Panhandle and surrounding areas. Students from surrounding schools receive the opportunity to collaborate with each other, learn from guest conductors and gain insight into the training offered at UWF. 

Braddock reflected about the environment on the heels of last year’s experience. “We were just barely talking about the virus then. It seems so strange.” She said that UWF will resume hosting the UWF High School Honor Band next year, Spring of 2022. 

Despite the setbacks faced this year, schools in Santa Rosa County gathered to host a high school honor band and welcomed Braddock as the guest conductor. 

Hosted by Milton Highschool, fifty students from six Santa Rosa County high schools gathered for the experience. These schools included students from Navarre, Pace, Gulf Breeze, Milton and Jay Florida. 

Students performed works such as “Shimmering Sunshine,” by Kevin Day; “Dum Spiro Spero,” by Chris Pilsner; “Diamond Tide,” by Viet Cuong; and “First Suite in Eb,” by Gustav Holst. 

Of the experience, Braddock said, “The Santa Rosa All-County Honor Band was an important event to strengthen the partnership between the Santa Rosa high schools and UWF. They were incredibly talented students and I had an incredible time making music with them. It was also a great way to get to know the directors more. We took COVID precautions; this is still one of the only honor bands that went forward in the country; pretty incredible.”