The Park City High School music department took the Wind Ensemble, Varsity Jazz Ensemble and Percussion Ensemble to compete in the Heritage Music Festival’s national competition in New York City earlier in April.

The Varsity Jazz Ensemble and the Percussion Ensemble placed first in their categories, the Wind Ensemble placed second in its category. All three ensembles were given a gold rating, which means they scored 90 or better out of 100 points in each category against other schools from across the nation.

In addition, the high school earned the Instrumental Sweepstakes Award, which is given to the school that averages the highest score amongst all their instrument groups.

Also, seven Park City music students were given Maestro Awards, which recognize “extreme musical leadership/performance characteristics,” said Bret Hughes, the assistant director of bands at the high school.

“Generally a group is lucky to come home with one Maestro Award winner, and having two or more is rare,” he told The Park Record. “This year, Park City students cleaned house in this category and we came home with seven.”

The seven students are Derrick Dymalski (clarinets/saxophones), Michael Richards and Laura Kelley (the tubalike euphonium) and Parker Swenson, Grady Tesch, Davis Johnson and Sam Scudder (percussion).

“It is a fantastic thing for them to come home with their trophies and judges complement,” Hughes said.

With the accolades still fresh, the Park City High School music department will hold a percussion concert on April 28 in the Black Box Theatre.

The performance will feature the Percussion Ensemble, the Marimba Quartet featuring Swenson, Tesch, Johnson and Scudder the Percussion Lab and the Junior Miners Percussionists, Hughes said.

“The Junior Miners is a group made up of seventh- and eighth- grade percussionists who come here for two hours on Wednesday nights on their own time to learn about the basics of grip, rhythm and stroke all the different percussion necessities,” Hughes said. “This group gives these kids percussion experience and it also bridges the gap of training between seventh and eighth grade.

“The seventh-graders at Ecker Hill Middle School don’t have a percussion-exclusive class,” he said. “The drummers are included in the concert band class. So they don’t have a place to just talk percussion, like we do in the eighth grade.”

The class also gives advanced students some teaching experience as well.

“The class is taught by myself and Sam Santistevan, and four students from the Percussion Ensemble come and help out as well,” Hughes said.

To help the Junior Miners excited for their segment of the show, Santistevan, who is a musician sponsored by Vic Firth drumsticks, Remo drumheads and Zildjian cymbals, was able to get the companies to sponsor the young percussionists as well.

“When we were planning the show, Sam had one of the students call the companies and asked if they were willing to help out,” Hughes said. “They sent free drum sticks, practice pads and other stuff to support the program.

“Also, Backbeats Drum and Backline store in Holladay provided T-shirts for the program,” he said.

Thursday’s program will feature an array of works, Hughes said.

“We’ll play everything from percussion arrangements of orchestral tunes such as (Rimsky-Korsakov’s) ‘Dance of the Tumblers’ and (Handel’s) ‘Entrance to the Queen of Sheba,'” he said. “Also we’ll play (Daniel Montoya Jr.’s) ‘The Widowmaker,’ which is a designated and highly advanced percussion piece.

“These kids have worked their tails off since January to get that piece down,” Hughes said. “It was one of the pieces we took to New York for the competition.”

The students will also have some fun during the concert, he said.

“We’re going to do a piece that is played on balloons,” Hughes said. “We’re also going to do selections on just the snare drums and just the marching band drums. In fact, we’re going to play every percussion instrument we have access to during the concert.”

The Park City High School percussion students will present a concert on Thursday, April 28, in the Black Box Theatre, 1750 Kearns Blvd., at 7 p.m. Admission is free.