Cooper’s Symphonic Winds returning to SuperState for third time in four years

Don’t call it a comeback! For the third time in four years, Cooper Middle School’s Symphonic Winds will return to the Illinois SuperState Concert Band Festival on Friday, May 9, as one of only seven middle school bands in the state to be invited to the state-wide event.

The prestigious, invitation-only festival, hosted by the University of Illinois School of Music, showcases some of the top middle school, high school, and university concert bands from across the state. 

“It’s a huge honor to be selected to participate in this,” said Cindy Severino, co-band director at Cooper. “I’m just really proud of the kids for all the work they’ve done to get ready.”

The band program started auditioning for the festival four years ago, as it had been a “bucket list” item for Severino, who will retire at the end of the 2024-2025 school year. 

“Anthony [Valenti, the co-director of the band program] told me we should try it, so I threw my hat in and we ended up making it…so then we had to do it again,” Severino said. “We had never done it before because it always conflicts with our spring musical, and half of our kids are also in the musical.”

As part of its application process, the band submitted a trio of pieces recorded over several sessions in February: “True Blue March,” “Music Speaks,” and “Fable.” The recording process served as a “good learning experience” for the students, according to Severino, as it helped them realize the amount of hard work, commitment and intricacies that come with recording music.

“They realized they couldn’t talk, they had to take their shoes off so the recording wouldn’t pick up feet tapping, and they couldn’t be off otherwise we’d have to start the whole thing over again,” Severino said. “Learning the process on how to record and prepare these pieces to the next level was a lot of work,” Severino said.

The recordings were eventually sent to judges across the country, who selected seven bands out of hundreds received. Severino and Valenti were initially supposed to hear whether the band had made it on the Friday before spring break, but technical difficulties delayed that notification until the beginning of April.

“We actually learned we had made it on April Fools’ Day, so when I sent the message out announcing that, some of the students were like ‘are you sure we actually made it?’” Severino said.

Between now and May 9, the focus switches to refining those three pieces, which the band will perform downstate. This includes articulation, intonation, and making sure all performers are on the same path and the same task.

“It’s those tiny little things that maybe the high school programs have worked on, but we haven’t been able to get to yet,” Severino said.

One band from each division is chosen as that year’s honor band, which are then chosen to return the following year for a feature performance. While that honor is ultimately the goal, the true merit is being invited.

“It’s a great way to end my career, to end with SuperState,” Severino said. “I never wanted to be one of those directors that just kind of lays back to finish off the year. I wanted to work hard and see what the kids could do and go to that next level, which they reached.”

The SuperState selection is one of many accolades the band has received this year. It also received a perfect score for the Northern Illinois Music Conference (NIMCon) Band Festival.