The Cerritos College Music Department presented the Band Exchange Concert for students in Cerritos College on March 15 in the Student Center featuring the Cerritos College Band, the Carmenita Cougar Band and the Concordia Wind Orchestra.

The Band Exchange Concert brought to Cerritos the different variety of music to students, giving them a taste of classical music.

And also performing other types of music like fandango or “Smoky Mountain,” a traditional piece, for middle school concert bands to the audience.

Carmenita Cougar Middle School, directed by Alan Hallback, gave the opening song to the concert by performing “Smoky Mountain” and three other songs.

“[I think it went] very good. The students just had to get used to how the stage sounded and how everything went,” Hallback said.

One of the other school bands that preformed was Concordia Wind Orchestra from Concordia University, which was conducted by Jeff Held, director of instrumentals at Concordia.

He explained that they have been getting ready for this concert for three weeks and rehearsing twice a week.

He also said they have been on tour this semester to perform in Sacramento, Bakerfield, Fresno, and Phoenix, Arizona.

They even played in churches but added that it was his first time coming to Cerritos with his band.

“It was just fine even though we didn’t get much time to rehearse in the hall, but I think we did well tonight,” Held said, adding that May 1 will be the last concert for the year.

The Cerritos College orchestra band, directed by David Betancourt, closed the concert by performing three other songs.

Betancourt said, “I am glad we did this tonight because it sounded good but we have a lot of room to grow so this was a good way to see where we are at and now we have a few weeks to get ready and to represent our school.”

He also explained that they have been rehearsing for this show since the beginning of the spring semester and getting ready to go on tour and play in Fresno.

Music major Fernando Gutieres talked about the performance afterward.

“It doesn’t get me nervous [anymore],” Gutieres said.

Jaynet Cisnerons, majoring in musical education and performance, said, “I will be honest, I made a couple of mistakes but everything went well and everyone played well.”

She also explained that they have been rehearsing for two months this semester, and she’s glad that they got better over time, saying, “basically any musician plays with all their guts and just go with the flow knowing that they rehearse.”