Student musicians from all over California flocked to the Delta College Band & Orchestra Festival on March 28-29.
Located in the Atherton Auditorium, this festival has been around for 10 years or just as long as its founder Arthur Holton has been working at Delta.
The Band & Orchestra festival contains musicians from elementary school to college, and allows these different schools to be critiqued and perfected in their musical education.
“A test for a musician is a performance, so these are tests for them, to try hard and play well,” said Holton.
Before Holton came to Delta there was a jazz festival, but nothing for the concert area.
He wanted something that was educational, and would recruit more students into the music department.
Holton wanted to increase interest in the program here.
He began mailing out applications and invitations, a process that is now done electronically, to various schools north of Sacramento and as far south as Fresno.
“I guess you can say that three-quarters of the schools that are here are repeating customers,”said Holton.
As many as 22 schools played in this years festival.
Hundreds of students from all over California came to this festival to show off their musical talent.
“In our society we put a lot of money in our athletes, a lot of respect into our athletes, and this is a chance to give our musicians some respect,” said Holton.
Anyone interested in learning more about this event can contact Holton at (209) 954-5283.