Deerpark Band Director Tom Patterson Points His Students Toward Austin Youth Orchestra

Online, March 25, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Austin, Texas - March 21, 2010 - Deerpark Band Director Tom Patterson has always enjoyed teaching students about music. Instructing middle school students is special to him because middle school is the season of life where all of the sour notes and dry theory that has been taught starts to click. As this metamorphosis occurs sometimes Tom Patterson's Deerpark band students find themselves. At Deerpark Middle School, Tom Patterson waits for these times and then points his students toward the Austin Youth Orchestra.

Deerpark's Tom Patterson said that the symphony orchestra auditions students from grades eight thru twelve. The Symphony Orchestra is a string orchestra during the first half of the fall semester and a full orchestra (strings, winds, and percussion) during the second half of the fall semester and throughout the spring semester. According to Patterson, the Symphony Orchestra is designed for highly advanced string, wind, and percussion players who wish to further their instrumental musical education with high-level orchestral repertoire. String players who have mastered proper position, play with accurate intonation and resonant tone, shift accurately into all positions, and play with refined bow control and vibrato are eligible for this orchestra. Band Director Tom Patterson also said that Deerpark wind and percussion players who have qualified for Texas Music Educators Association All-Region Orchestra/Band or who perform at a comparable level are also eligible for this orchestra.

Patterson added that the Austin Youth orchestra was founded in 1993 and was established to enhance orchestral music education in the metropolitan Austin and central Texas area. Because of band director Tom Patterson's involvement in the music education of Deerpark Middle School he has seen his share of students come through the classroom and end up in a youth symphony chair. As a middle school band director at Deerpark, Tom Patterson takes pride in the contribution he has made as part of the Deerpark band students' curriculum.

Spring 2010 is no different. Deerpark Band Director Tom Patterson will watch from afar as students step up and migrate into the greater metropolitan Austin music scene. Patterson's personal history with the Austin symphony coupled with his genuine passion for teaching kids has allowed him to watch talent to develop first hand. As the newest group of Deerpark hopefuls prepares to audition, Band Director Tom Patterson provides nothing but encouragement and well wishes for his students. How could Tom Patterson do less; he is after all the Deerpark Middle School Band Director.