The New Mexico State University Wind Symphony traveled to Alamogordo and Santa Fe, New Mexico to recruit high school students and share music with locals in their first Enchantment Tour this past weekend.

The group began their tour in Alamogordo to work with the Alamogordo High School band students on Thursday. They performed a short concert featuring three of their pieces, then worked with the AHS symphonic band and wind ensemble on their own music.

New Mexico high schools are preparing for Music Performance Assessment, where they are each evaluated on their performance. Shamlan Al-Masoud, the band director at AHS, said the college students and professors were a great help in their preparation.

“That afternoon we had a night rehearsal of our own without the NMSU Wind Symphony and we utilized their feedback,” Al-Masoud said. He also said this was the first time college students had been to his school in this capacity, and they would like to have the NMSU bands return.

Veronica Huber, a senior at NMSU majoring in music education, said she thought trips like this one are important because they give younger students an opportunity to see a more professional music group, and get a glimpse into what college band is like.

“Even if they don’t ever desire to be a music major or even be in band in college, it’s good to see that they have an option to,” Huber said.

The Wind Symphony continued on to Santa Fe, New Mexico and performed a concert in the St. Francis Auditorium of the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe on Friday. Dr. Michael Mapp, Director of Bands at NMSU, said he was happy with their performance and that about 119 audience members turned out for the concert.

“I wasn’t expecting that many people since it was a kind of last minute addition to the tour,” Mapp said. “It’s an artistic, cultural town that I think that if we made it a continuous thing that our audiences would start to grow.”

He explained that the purpose of this tour was to reintroduce the NMSU band program to the state of New Mexico and reach out to high school students to show them what they can aspire to sound like in college.

“There’s a lot of people that just stop playing after high school and I’d like that to not continue,” Mapp said. He added that it is also important for the college students to share their music with individuals as well, to understand how music can affect people.

Mapp hopes to continue going on tours around the state, and plans to have the NMSU Wind Symphony perform outside of the state and possibly outside of the country in the coming years.

For more information about NMSU bands, contact Dr. Michael Mapp at 575-646-3319.