Everything we do here at the McDade Music Program can be found here. If you have any questions feel free to
contact Mr. Baker at james.baker@mcdadeisd.net

It was another McDade Music Program Record breaking day! The McDade music students took part in the 2024 Solo and Ensemble competition. The students choose a solo piece or a small ensemble piece to play for a judge and are largely responsible for practicing and preparing the music on their own. 

This year we took 18 students, the largest number we have taken to to participate in this event. (Its also almost half the band). Four of our seven soloists came back with a 1 Rating on their solo, which is the highest score you can achieve for that event. Soloist Mark Hobbs brought home a 1 Rating for a Class One Solo which is the hardest solo you can choose to perform! 

Our Percussion Ensemble "The Bandits" also received a 1 Rating from the judges from their performance of a Class Two Ensemble "Escape Route."

This is the first year McDade has taken either a Brass or Woodwind Ensemble and both have advanced to the State Contest held in May! The McDade Brass Ensemble aka the "Brass Baddies" received a 1 Rating on their performance of a Class One Ensemble "The Whaling Song."  The Woodwind Ensemble also received a 1 Rating on their performance of  "William Tell Overture" also a Class One Ensemble while performing it MEMORIZED! Both groups made school history by being the first wind ensemble to perform and both making it to the State Level. 

We're looking forward to hearing their performances in May at the State Solo and Ensemble Contest at Hendrickson High School!

For the last two weekends of January the McDade Music Program has had 6 students participate in the Middle School and High School All Region Bands as well as in the High School All Region Jazz Band performances at the Bastrop Performing Arts Center. Our students put in the work to audition for these groups for over 3 months, put a concert together with 75 other strangers in less than 24 hours and had excellent performances over these last two weekends.

We are super proud of our Middle School students: Brianna Briones for earning 6th Chair Flute and Jacklyn Dube for earning 3rd chair Tuba.

Ransom Stidham and Mark Hobbs earned spots in the All Region Jazz Band for a second year in a row! 

McDade had students in all three bands that performed for the High School All Region Band including:
Aubrey Tabor on French Horn and Leah Chavez on Alto Sax in the Concert Band.

Mark Hobbs on trumpet in the Concert Band and

Ransom Stidham on Tenor Trombone in the Wind Ensemble.

We are very proud that our 1A school can have students audition with the surrounding 2A-4A schools and earn such high positions in the performing bands.

Great things are happening at McDade!

It takes a village to raise a kid but it takes a village of villages to send a band to State Marching Contest! There are so many people to thank for helping us get to this point. We had so many people contribute to the success of our students, we wanted to say thank you to every one of them. 

Firstly, huge thanks to McKezie Pettit, our Color Guard instructor! McKenzie is a college student in Bryan, works a job, has an internship AND still makes time to come down and work with our students!She has to drive an hour, one-way, to take part in practices and events. Her dedication to the girls and this program is incredible and we are so thankful to have her. McKenzie has been with the program from the beginning, ever since we started performing UIL style shows. She has taught our guard how to toss, march and dance choreography and it was amazing to have her take her Color Guard all the way to State! Thank you McKenzie for all your hard work and dedication to our students!

Great job McDade Band Boosters and Parents!! To my knowledge McDade has never taken an overnight trip with 40 students at one time, much less participated in a competition with that many students in a completely different city! Thank you so much to Mr. Brock Rother for being our videographer for the whole season! I'm looking forward to those band banquet videos this year! To Mrs. Michelle Rother for being our go-ahead for food runs and hotel check-in. Mrs. Carreno for escorting the color guard and providing snacks throughout the season. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Hankemeier for doing quite a bit of organizing, food pick up, and prop handling for the show. Thanks to our newest band parent Mrs. Nancy Cardenas for helping with the keyboard for the whole day! Thank you Mr. Ryan Maybin for helping in anyway possible on this trip and picking up the extra slack where possible. Thank you Mrs. Dube for handling all the last minute finances as our Booster Treasurer and for coming out to support our kids. Huge thanks to Mrs. Lauarlee Barnard for coordinating the Boosters as the President and being a huge part behind the scenes to getting us to State. We had some amazing staff go with us as well. Mr. Ray Cardenas was always exactly where we needed him when we needed him with the equipment trailer no matter where in San Antonio we were. Mr. Keith Denson did a masterful job getting us to and from San Antonio, McDade, the Almodome and everywhere in between with his amazing bus driving skills. 

Thanks to Mr. and Mrs Hallford, Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs, Mr and Mrs. Mouser, Mr. and Mrs. Nuby, Mrs. Rebecca Plumley (who we ran into in the hallway), and Mrs. Stidham for coming out to support our students at the Alamodome! Huge thanks to Mrs. Hobbs for getting us on the Fox 7 News!!

We'd also like to thank Wayne King, Dianna King, and Cathy Sherrill of the Smithville High School Band. They have really been our silent partners through out our musical journey. They sent us McKenzie who has inspired a whole generation of color guard students, have been present for every UIL Concert and Sightreading performance, cheered us on at various parades, have given countless hours in advice and musical help, allowed me to go through and borrow music in their library, and even allowed us to borrow a few of their field props and some instruments to get us through this marching season. The McDade Music Program's success and continued success is due in a large part to their generosity and wisdom. We would not have the program we have today without them. Thank you so much Wayne, Dianna, and Cathy!!

We owe a huge thank you to Bastrop ISD for allowing us to practice on their turf field for two of our Monday Night practices. This was instrumental to our success on the Alamodome turf field. Thank you Superintendent Edwards, Athletic Coordinator Mrs. Adaire, and Stadium Manager Mr. Dee!

The staff at Hotel Gibbs in San Antonio were all great! We really appreciate how friendly they were and how much they looked after our kids. Thanks Hotel Gibbs!

We'd also like to thank Mr. Honeycutt, Jim Reed and Luke McMillian for giving us fantastic drill and music to work with over the course of the season! Its been great fun learning your music and fielding your drill! 

The band has had many other band directors help us along the way! Thank you to Roxanne Heckmann for coming out to Clinic our band in preparation for the UIL Region Contest. Thank you Mr. Michael Powers of Thorndale for reviewing our practice videos and giving us much needed feedback. Huge thanks to Mr. Perry Morris for coming out on that really cold night in Bastrop and giving us critiques and advice that helped get us to the next level. Thanks to Band Director and 1A champ Lynsey Gold of Junction helping me navigate the logistics of a State Contest. Big thanks to our new friend Band Director Brian Tillman of Irion County for all the advice and help getting through the event musically, professionally and logistically. Thank you to Mr. Jim Powell for being a steadfast mentor and friend through this experience. 

We had a lot of community members and businesses behind us as well! Huge thanks to Bare Bottom Signs of McDade for coming through with a huge printing job with a 24hr turnaround time! We also want to thank them for the amazing yard signs they provided to our students! Big thanks to Mrs. Linda Bauer of The Winning Shot photography for coming through with professional photos of the students in a crunch! Huge thanks to our online  and in-person donors: Mr. Charles Willimas, Terry Dawdy, Breda Kyle, Dottie Zschech, Kenneth Barnard, David Rowland, Angelina Aranjo, Lacy Jewell, Claudia Araujo, Laura Cruise, Susan Raney, Laurey Wolf, Megan Nalley, Kiersten Dube, Parona Pease and Ethan Hankemeier's Nanna!

And finally, there's so much thanks that goes to our great faculty and staff here at McDade. Thanks to Mrs. Jackson, Dawdy, Meads, Dawdy and Mr. Kubiak for letting me borrow the Percussionists for first period class a few times. To Mrs Tomasa and her kitchen staff for making all those great meals we enjoyed throughout the trip! To Mr Terry Johnson for keeping up with all our transportation needs throughout the season. To Mr. TC and Robert for caring for and lining the practice field this season. To Mr. Whitney Stephens for keeping up with all those PO's and payments we need to make to keep this train running, to Mrs. Hallford for handing our PR in the Newspapers. To Mrs Sparks for trusting that Baker is acting in the best interest of the kids and rolling with all the last minute schedule changes. And thanks to our Superintendent Mrs. Heather Stidham for working with us to get us whatever we needed in order to make this happen, sometimes moving mountains to help our students achieve this success.

Thank you to every one of you. You all made a difference in our students lives and success with your kindness and generosity! We hope to see you at our Winter Concert on December 15th. 

Until next marching season! 

Congratulations to the McDade High School Band for earning 6th Place in the 1A State Marching Contest! They  band had to perform their way through a preliminary round of competition, making the top 7 out of the 15 bands competing. In the Finals round they performed for a whole new set of judges who placed them 6th in the State! The McDade community is extremely proud of their little band for pushing themselves to go further than they could've ever dreamed of.

The McDade Band has some great student leadership. They were under the field direction of  Drum Majors Sebastian Velazquez (Senior) and Areli Velazquez (Junior) with Color Guard Captains Shelia Lugo (Junior) and Shyanne Alexander (Junior) The Colorguard Instructor is McKezie Pettit (Pictured below) who does an absolutely fantastic job choreographing, teaching and leading the routines for her girls. The band credits its incredible year with fantastic student leadership who were constantly pushing not only their own limits but limits of the school they attend. From 7:00 am rehearsals, Monday Night Practices on a turf field in Bastrop to acquiring props from other school districts and having our local Bare Bottom Signs print them  out, this group of students took this group to a level far beyond what was asked or expected of them. 

Upon learning that they would be going to State the student leadership held a meeting and determined that they wanted to be one of the best in the State. When they were told what it would take they got right to work setting up extra sectionals and coordinating self-run practices. Not one student ever complained about participating in early morning practice or extra sectionals. The ownership and leadership these students showed for their was top notch and their hard work shows in their accomplishments. Congratulations and great work McDade Bulldog Band!!