About four times a year, the band and choral program work immensely to prepare for their upcoming concerts. The band program recently had it’s annual “Pops” concert. The “Pops” concert usually consists of recognizable and current songs.

Concert band director Mr. Benson said, “We typically play more popular songs and not the standard band literature. We like to do famous marches and movie themes.”

This year’s concert included a Disney melody, An Abbey Road and a Beatles song, Love melody and even a James Bond Suite.When the school year kicks in, the band program is usually preparing for their halftime show at the football games and for all of the pep fests Eagan has at the beginning of the year.

Once football season is over, the band program starts kicking it into high gear to prepare for their “Pops” concert which is usually in the first week or two of November.

“There are a few factors that go into choosing the songs we do. We want to choose an appropriate level of difficulty. It has to be a good length, we don’t want a long, dense and heavy piece. We also want it to fit into the “Pop” category so people can sing along, tap their foot. It also depends on what direction we want to go in for the concert.” says Benson.

The band program consists of four different bands. The Wildcat, Concert, Symphonic band and Wind Ensemble all have a little more than a month to prepare three or four songs for the “Pops” concert.

Once the “Pops” concert concludes, the band teachers start to prep for their January concert. Benson shares, “We usually start out with exploring 8-10 songs and depending on what ones are working out, we narrow it down from there. It’s amazing the progress they made in those 5 weeks from the end of the football season to the concert.”