A high school band is going viral on TikTok for their joyful reaction after their band director gave them the biggest surprise this month.
Haley Kinzler filmed her Greene Central High School concert bandmates cheering and celebrating after their director Andrew Howell pulled out a plaque and revealed they had received the highest marks at the North Carolina Bandmasters Association Music Performance Adjudication concert band festival, a statewide event involving high schools across the Tar Heel State.
"[Howell] told us beforehand that if he came out with an envelope or a piece of paper, we got 'Excellent' or anything below that. But he said if he has something that looks like wood or cardboard or something, it would be 'Superior.' And so we saw an envelope and everybody expected a paper," the 18-year-old trumpet player explained to "Good Morning America." " We didn't expect [a plaque] to be in the envelope. So we were a little disappointed at first but then we were surprised."
Kinzler's TikTok video post of the exciting memory has since gone viral on TikTok with over 13 million views since March 20.
Howell told "GMA" the Greene Central High School concert band, which consists of about 40 students, had to prepare three songs to perform, and although they had been practicing since January, even he wasn't sure they would pull off a "superior" result.
"It was just as big of a surprise to me as to the students when we did get it," Howell said. "When the person that hosts the event came back with a plaque, I thought I was going to cry in the lobby there, and I had to take about 5 or 10 minutes before I went back to the bus to figure out what I was going to say -- and everything I planned to say, I didn't say when I got on the bus. I was so ready to just let them know how well they had done."
Howell, who has been band director for six years, said he hopes the band's heartwarming reaction can inspire people to support music education.
"I'd really want everyone to maybe look at their local high school or middle school, at their music programs, the art programs, and see what those kids there are also really accomplishing," said Howell. "Because if they're anything like the kids in my band, they're so determined, and they're so bought in. It's something they really want to do and they're really proud of, so it's really nice when they get the recognition, like my students have as well."
