Students from as far away as Alaska came to D.C. to spend a weekend rehearsing (and sightseeing) and then performing for a sold-out crowd at the Kennedy Center.
My favorite of the band songs was Butterflies and Bees! composed by Yale University band director Thomas Duffy, who also conducted the All-National band. The link above will take you to an mp3 of the song. I was impressed with the way Duffy utilized each instrument to make the most of the butterflies and bees motif. A muted trombone sounds surprisingly like a bee. And apparently you can imitate a butterfly's wings flapping with an oboe and a piccolo.
The orchestra played Beethoven's 5th, which reminded me of this video I posted back in 2009. It bears repeating:
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