“It’s like a story; it’s like a fairy tale,” said DHS senior trumpet player David Nava of advancing to state in the Association of Small School Bands contest after placing first in regional and at area Saturday, Jan. 10.
“I find it really cool,” said Nava. “I’ve been trying since Freshman year. I’ve been last chair in bottom band all the way to first chair in first band. Now, I got first in area and hopefully first in state for chair.”
Nava admits to being discouraged heading into this competition. “In my junior year, I got worse [results] than my sophomore year,” he said. “It really hit me because I thought I was getting worse.”
He was particularly shaken because he intends to get a degree so he can be a band director himself. The seeming regression just made him work harder.
For the contest, band members are given two weeks to learn a piece of music before performing it in auditions.
“I would spend every day in that practice room,” Nava said. “It wasn’t hard, but it was repetitive. You had to be perfect. If you messed up one time, there’s not much to judge.”
“I had periods where I wondered if it was even worth it,” he said. “Within two seconds, I was like ‘Heck yeah, it’s worth it; I want to make state!’” The stress continued on competition day as he spent time with the other performers in the holding room while waiting his turn and for results.
“I made a lot of friends but I was still intimidated by a lot of them,” said Nava, adding they were really funny and fun to visit with. “I knew a lot of them from previous competitions. I thought, ‘What if they’re lucky? What if they’re not stressed like me?’” Despite these nerves, he rose above and was selected to the All-State Band. He will be among a select few from the 10,000 who competed to join the allstate performance Saturday, Feb. 14, in the Lila Cockrell Theatre of the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center in downtown San Antonio.
Nava is looking forward to the performance and is currently practicing for State Solo and Ensemble competition with Alexander Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto. “The piece I’m practicing is beyond hard,” said the student. “It’s something a college student would do for a recital.”
DHS head band director Cathryn Smith knows he is up to the challenge and is proud of his accomplishments thus far.
“David Nava is one of those kids that continually rises to every challenge that you put in front of him,” Smith said. “I am completely proud of his ability to work on the finer details to clean up his music! I am excited to see how far David goes in life because if you told him the sky was the limit, he would work hard to prove to you that there is more out there.”