The Montezuma-Cortez High School bands will wrap up their performance season with two concerts this month.
M-CHS hosts the All-District Band Night Tuesday at 7 p.m. The senior appreciation concert will be May 11, at M-CHS at 7 p.m.
The senior appreciation concert will be Director Rodney Ritthaler’s final concert with the band. His 28-year career at M-CHS will end when he retires after this school year.
Ritthaler said the bands are solid this year.
“We have some great kids and the talent’s there,” he said.
The jazz band played at the Colorado Mesa University jazz festival yesterday. The jazz band will wrap up the festival season at the Skyline Jazz Festival in Longmont on May 5.
Both concert and jazz bands earned “superior” ratings at the CHSAA large group festival in Bayfield on April 20, Ritthaler said. Both groups got perfect ratings from judges at the festival, he said.
The concert band earned a 2 in the sight reading portion of the event, which is an excellent rating, Ritthaler said.
On April 21, both groups traveled to the Colorado West Music Festival in Grand Junction. Both bands earned “superior” ratings at that event, and the jazz band was deemed the top jazz group in the 3A category, Ritthaler said.