Senior Spotlight: Band

Riley GriffithArts, Band, News & Events, Spotlight, Student Spotlight

Senior Marching Band.

Anna Claire Carlock

Senior, Anna Claire Carlock has been at St. Luke’s since pre-school! She has also been in the band for six years and she can not wait to start her last season with her wildcat band mates!

Anna Claire has been seen playing many different instruments in our wildcat band! She plays the flute and the piccolo for the band, but she can also play the alto flute and bass flute. Our band members are very versatile with their instruments, which helps the band be more successful and sound wonderful to the audience.

One of Anna’s favorite band traditions is the paper plate awards. This “award show” was created by the band themselves. Each member receives a paper plate as an award for the many funny and unique inside jokes the band has. We love it when our Wildcats create special traditions! That truly makes St. Luke’s one of a kind! Anna Claire is also a member of the PACT theatre company. She has performed many shows with the PACT such as “Newsies,” “Shrek the Musical,” “Seussical,” and our very own St. Luke’s “High School Musical Jr.” She was also the choreographer for “High School Musical” and she did a wonderful job! The PACT is working on a new production of “Beauty and the Beast” and we can’t wait to see you shine on that stage once again! Keep up the good work!

After Anna Claire graduates, she plans on working in education and special needs education or music therapy. St. Luke’s is so proud of you, Anna Claire! Music is the soundtrack to our lives and Anna Claire surely knows how to put on a show! Never let the music stop!

Jack Wheeler

Jack Wheeler is a long timer at St. Luke’s! He has attended St. Luke’s for 14 years and has been in the Wildcat band for 7 years. He loves the band and he loves performing during our football half-time shows!

Although Jack is only seen playing percussion instruments, he can also play the guitar and the piano! He has also accomplished many other amazing things during his time at St. Luke’s. He is also in our chapel band and participated in the Auburn University Honor Symphonic Band. Jack was taught by Auburn University's Department of Music’s world-class faculty and even sat in on many classes to help enhance his music career! Only a select number of students get invited to this event and we are so glad one of our wildcats got this opportunity! Great work, Jack!

One of Jack’s favorite traditions of the band is the paper plate awards. The seniors write awards, or inside jokes, on the plate and they distribute them out to the recipients. Creating new traditions makes an everlasting bond and memories with our band members! We love their hard work and dedication in the music room as well as their performances.

St. Luke’s and your band family is so proud of you, Jack! We hope that your love for music takes you very far in life and don’t forget…. You never can stop the beat! Go Wildcats!

Kasey Hernandez-Sexton

Kasey Hernandez-Sexton is a senior at St. Luke’s and has been attending here for the past 10 years. Kasey is involved in many clubs, electives, and extracurriculars one of these being the St. Luke’s band which she plays bass for. Kasey decided to play the bass for the band because it is very similar to the guitar, which she already plays, so she found it to be a good fit for her. Kasey enjoys band class because she gets to see her friends, play music every day, and finds it to be a good break from all of her academics which allows her to renew her energy for the rest of the day. She loves getting to learn music with others and play it at events like chapel, football games, and pep rallies. When asked how she makes practice fun Kasey says, “I make practice fun for myself by practicing scales in a speed-test sorta way. I like to challenge myself to see just how fast I can play scales. I do this for other fun/upbeat marching band songs as well.”

Kasey’s interest in music began at 9 years old, so it was a no-brainer for her to join the band the moment she got on the upper campus and she has been playing bass ever since. Her all time favorite songs are “Imagine” by John Lennon and “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong. Although, when playing with the band her favorite song is “Seven Nation Army” because she likes how the bass sounds in it. Bass isn’t the only instrument Kasey can play, she also plays the guitar, piano, banjo, dulcimer, ukulele, flute, and she can sing!

Kasey’s future plans in music consist of learning to play instruments such as the tuba, trumpet, saxophone, cello, and drums. While she doesn’t plan on participating in band past high school, Kasey does want to join a choir of some sort during college. As for College, Kasey says she has her “fingers crossed for Barnard College in NYC” for next fall!

Sheldon Inge

Sheldon Inge is a senior at St. Luke’s and has been attending the school since K3. Sheldon has been playing the percussion for the school band since 6th grade. He believes his interest in music started around the age of 6 when he first tried out drums and began experimenting with music.

Sheldon’s favorite part about being in band is the family-like feel it has as well as the end of the year tradition where the seniors get to assign awards to the underclassman. He also enjoys cracking jokes during practice with the rest of the band and he mentions how it helps them to really bond and get to know each other. Sheldon believes that band has improved his work in school and is a good way for him to let out his energy during the day.

When it comes to his personal goals for band, Sheldon states he plans to always be improving and that his main goal is to be able to create his own rhythms effortlessly. Sheldon’s favorite musician at the moment is Dave Grohl because of his authenticity and refusal to use auto-tune. Sheldon looks up to him for how noble he is and aspires to be like him one day. Next fall, Sheldon plans to further his education at South Alabama. Go get ‘em, Wildcat!