In order to fundraise for the music department, the FC Jazz Band and Ensemble hosted a dessert festival in Ground Zero, Nov. 5. The event is an annual production that has been in place for about five years.

At the festival, parents of the performers make a variety of desserts to auction off at the event. This event is put on currently by Music Director Michael Ogdon.

According to Ogdon, the occasion requires hard work and the attention of various details.

“Preparing for a concert takes a lot of hard work,” Ogdon said. “It includes administrative things like coordination of desserts to share and sell, figuring out how to have enough pens for the silent auction, getting table cloths and bringing in an electric piano and setting up sound equipment.”

Along with the logistics of desserts and sound equipment, the materials needed to promote the event and to provide an enjoyable evening for the guests must be taken into account.

“Chairs and tables also need to be set up and lighting has to be considered,” Ogdon said. “Decisions have to be made about promotion, whether or not to sell tickets and programs, and if we should have hot cider and milk or just stick with water.”

The songs that were played during the festival were: Hit The Bricks, Bossa Maderira, All About You, River Rats and Dinner With Ronald. These were chosen because they were the best of the songs learned earlier this year.

Each of the songs featured two to three soloists, which were improvised. The solos were played by Dalton Cowin, Madison Seib, Eric Cowin, Cho Fai Wong, William Vander Kooi, Lindsey Biehler, Jason Kim, Matthew Garza, Ryan King, Skyler Lee and Trevor Trevino.

Every soloist completely improvised their part based on the tone of the song and the solos that came before them.

As a junior high participant, eighth grade trumpet player William Vander Kooi says that he enjoyed the evening for the feel of certain songs but still felt some nerves about performing.

“I thought ‘Bossa Madiera’ was fun to play because it had scales in it and I had a solo in it,” Vander Kooi. “Scales are fun to play because you can play them fast. I practiced improvisation before the concert to get better at it for my solo, but I was still nervous because I had to perform in front of people by myself.”

Out of all the songs, freshman alto saxophonist Skyler Lee favored “My Dinner with Ronald,” for its rhythmic feel and because she was able to perform a solo.

“I liked ‘Dinner with Ronald’ because it has a good rhythm and swings, plus I had a solo in it,” Lee said. O”ur solos were all improvised, so it was a little nerve-racking, making things up on the spot. However, I feel that everyone who had a solo did a great job.”

Along with auctioning desserts, there were also small candies and cookies given out for free during a fifteen minute intermission. By the time the intermission was over, all the complimentary food was completely gone.

“I enjoyed performing in the dessert festival because this was our first official show at FC,” King said. “I’m excited for next year’s festival, even though this year we had to start brand new because a lot of people graduated last year. But, this festival went very well so we can only get better from here.”

Freshman Ali Cowan, an attendee at the festival, believe the evening to be enjoyable for the whole family.

“I had a good time,” Cowan said. “The bands were really good and my family was impressed. I think everything went very well.”

For more features, read the Nov. 8 article, Fenton’s welcome twin girls into family of six (VIDEO).