How often does your school ensemble perform?
Football teams play weekly throughout the season. Tennis teams might play 3 matches in a week, and same with soccer. Most high school sports play 2-3 matches per week, all season long.
Year-long scholastic ensembles definitely shouldn’t adopt a tennis schedule, and even a football schedule feels far too busy to maintain. But a standard concert season schedule just doesn’t give sufficient performance opportunities for ensemble members to learn and develop as performers.
Better would be a more regular schedule with time for reflection and development between performances.
They don’t need concert attire, they don’t need a ticketed audience, they don’t need any formality. They just need the chance to perform and learn from that performance.
Athletic teams grow from each game they play. How can you give your ensembles the same opportunity while maintaining a reasonable amount of demands on your students time?