Although the pandemic has changed and canceled lots of events, the Cannon Falls Band still continued with their fall band concert. While no one was able to attend live, the band program made it possible for community members to enjoy the music online.

On October 30th, the high school and middle school bands had their first band concert of the school year. Because of the global pandemic, the concert had many restrictions. The biggest difference between this concert was that there was no audience. Only band players and the instructor were present for the performance. Both Cohort 1 and 2 performed together for the first time this year. The concert was performed live in the high school gym and recorded live for families and community members to see. Usually, high school band students would wear formal outfits provided by the school, but because of the Covid-19, the school was unable to do so. All of the concerts performed that night were separated. All seating was spaced 6 feet apart and everything was disinfected in between performances. There were long breaks in between all of the concerts to allow less human interaction. 

The high schoolers played first starting at 6:30 pm. The music they played was The Red Balloon by Anne McGinty and Highland Echoes by Larry Daehn. Some of the high school students stayed later to watch the other middle school concerts to give the younger students a small audience.

The Sixth-Grade Band played after the high schoolers. They started their concert at 7:00 pm. They played Beethoven’s Ninth by Paul Lavender. After the Sixth-Grade Concert concluded, the Seventh-Grade Concert played. They started at 7:30 pm. They performed The Crusaders by Frank Erickson and Bavarian Folk Dance, Traditional German Folk Song, arr. John Kinyon. The concert ended with eighth-grade. They started their performance at 8:00 pm. They played Midnight Madness by Brian Balmages and  Soul Rock by Dale Lauder.

The band students who are in separate cohorts had not rehearsed together at the time of the concert. They however played together. “It was a joy to see students interacting and performing with their classmates, in some cases for the first time since last winter,” the band instructor, Mike Legvold, said. A 9th-Grade trumpet player, Randi Hanson, said “It was nice to see the other half of the school and play with them.” Although the fall band concert looked different than most other years, the band program made the most out of the situation and had a great performance.