If there’s anything Dartmouth High School makes a habit of, it’s going above and beyond. On Thursday, Dec. 17, Dartmouth’s band performed reimagined versions of holiday songs.

Narrated by Dr. John Nunes, the band’s final performance of the fall semester kicked off with the percussion ensemble’s modernized renditions of “Jingle Bells” and “Silent Night,” conducted by Assistant Band Director Thomas Aungst.

The concert performance has proved to be a nice change for band members, who have spent the better part of the semester playing marching-style arrangements.

“Concert band is fun because you’re playing more classical music instead of march-style music,” said senior Ethan Shields, a trumpet player of seven years.

Instead of sticking with the more well-known Christmas classics, the stage band and concert band performed some lesser-known instrumental arrangements like “A Big Band Christmas,” “Holiday Fanfare,” “Chanukah is Here,” and “Celebrate Christmas.”

Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus, played by John Lima and Becky Amaral, even dropped by to enjoy the music.

Dartmouth High's musicians are undoubtedly committed to excellence. Band and color guard finished out their season with a second place win over 15 bands at Nationals and have consistently earned between first and third place at the National level for the last 20 years, said Director of Music Bill Kingsland.

Junior Rose Silvia, a trombone player, credits their instructors with setting such a high bassline for success.

“We wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are without our instructors. We have A+ instructors,” Silvia said. “And it helps because they’re fabulous musicians, too. We really get the musicianship from them.”

“It’s just a lot of fun to produce music and be a part of this massive organization that the school actually respects,” Shields said.

“We’ll easily have over 12, maybe 13, hours of practice a week,” said senior Dave Correia, or “Tuba Dave. “This was my final year, and I had a lot of fun doing it… I’m not going to put the tuba down anytime soon.”

The hours of practice have certainly proven to be rewarding for the accomplished band. Despite the long hours of work, band members feels it's more than an extracurricular activity.

“Being able to meet all of the people that you get to meet and being in that environment [is the best part],” said Silvia. “Going into high school, you never really know what crowd you’re going to fit into. If you join band, you’re always gonna fit in with the band crowd. There’s never a point in time where you [feel] like you don’t fit in.”