Tuesday’s presentation of the Inked Threads Band Performer of the Week Award came literally as the Hope Band was finishing a rehearsal in Hammons Stadium prior to leaving the Hope High campus for the Region 2 Marching Assessment in Texarkana, Arkansas. 

This reporter was privileged to see the last seven minutes of the band's rehearsal and marvel at what a different experience it is to see close up at the 50-yard line versus seeing it on streamed video. 

Jair Salgado, the soprano saxophonist soloist so integral to the Juno show, is a senior who said he worked up his busy, arpeggiated and sometimes atonal solo over a period of weeks of repetition. Band director Chris Davis said, “He knocks his solos out of the park every week.” 

As if that weren’t enough, Salgado also performs as one of the band’s drum majors, all as part of his performance as the show’s main character, a bird rewarded for long years of humility. The part very much suits Salgado, who is in his sixth year as a performer in Hope’s band program, having started in the seventh grade. He attends classes at UAHT concurrently with his high school work and plans to major in music education after graduating this coming May. 

The band has just come off another successful contest Saturday, having scored all 1st divisions in the categories of color guard, percussion and overall band which were good for a second place finish overall at the Razorback Marching Invitational, which also took place at Arkansas High, meaning that Tuesday night’s contest will be the second time the Hope band has competed on that campus. 

The results and judge-provided feedback from tonight’s contest, which pits Hope against bands from Dierks, Fouke, Foreman, Horatio, Genoa Central, Ashdown, DeQueen and Arkansas High, will be important as the band refines its performance ahead of the state contest at War Memorial Stadium November 5th.