BIDDEFORD  — For 61 members of the Fifth Grade Band at Biddeford Intermediate School, Wednesday was the culmination of months of practice and rehearsal and for the first time this year, they collectively displayed their musical talents before large receptive audiences.

Performing in daytime and evening concerts at the Biddeford Performing Arts Center at Biddeford Middle School, band members were able to create a festive holiday atmosphere and demonstrate their ability to play more than seven types of musical instruments.

Under the leadership of band director Jillian Cote, fifth-graders played six selections for their BIS classmates during the daytime concert. The tunes included “The Magnificent Five” by Mark Williams; “Sweetly Sings the Donkey,” a traditional favorite; “Good King Wenceslas.” a Christmas carol; “Power Rock” by Peter Blair; a medley of “My County Tis of Thee,” and “Jolly Old St. Nicholas;” and “Jingle Bells” by J.S. Pierpont, as arranged by Chuck Elledge.

The band has been rehearsing twice a week since school started in September and once together as a whole group. For this Winter Band Concert, students played flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, trombone, trumpet and an assortment of percussion instruments like snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, wood blocks and hi-hat.

“Leading up to this day, they were all really excited,” Cote said. “I heard a number of students talking in the hallway saying they couldn’t wait for when they could perform this concert.”

Andrea Wollstadt, who also teaches music at BIS and at John F. Kennedy Memorial School, said the underlying purpose of Biddeford’s elementary music program is to offer quality music education for all students.

She said that music and the arts give children a well-rounded education and a springboard for future success.

“The point is not to turn out Mozarts or Mariah Careys, rather it’s to help make these young people smarter,” Wollstadt said.

The band program at BIS actually begins for students in the fourth grade and when students return to school following the Christmas break, both the BIS fourth-grade less-experienced musicians and the fifth-grade band will team up and start rehearsing for a spring concert to be performed together as one band in May.

Cote also had a surprise for the fifth-grade BIS band members when they came to school on Tuesday as she informed them that during their evening concert on Wednesday night, they would be called back up on stage to perform “Jingle Bells” with the Biddeford High School Symphonic Band.

“In getting ready for this concert, the hardest song for me to play was ‘Power Rock’ because there are a lot of rests and then you have to play on the first beat of a measure,” said percussionist Henry Grohman, 10. “It’s challenging. It’s difficult for snare drummers to switch to the next piece.”

Grohman said he enjoys the creativity of playing music.

“I love the freeness of it all,” he said. “You don’t have to play what everyone else does. It’s fun to experiment.”

Saxophonist Jackie Dallaire, 10, said she chose her musical instrument for a number of reasons.

“My older sister Maggie played the saxophone and so we didn’t to get another one,” she said. “I also just like the the way that it sounds.”

Percussionist Caleb Tardif, 10, performs on the snare drum, wood blocks and hi-hat, and said he started playing drums because the only instruments his sister doesn’t play are saxophone and drums.

“I picked the drums, ” he said. “This concert was challenging for me because in these selections, percussion has a lot more rests and more quarter notes. It’s because we’re more experienced,” he said.

Tardif said he was both nervous and excited for the opportunity to perform with members of the high school band.

“It’s way cool,” he said. “It’s going to be really something to remember.”

— Executive Editor Ed Pierce can be reached at 282-1535 or by email at editor@journaltribune.com