It’s once again time for the Region 10 Band Festival as more than 1,000 high school and middle school band students will travel to Bridgeport High School for the May 1-2 event. Both BHS and Robert C. Byrd are serving as host sites with all-day adjudication taking place each day.

 

Each band will audition before a trio of seasoned professionals, performing two selections from the West Virginia Band Masters Graded Music List. Selections are graded from Level 1 (easiest to perform) to Level 6 (most difficult). Each band will be evaluated on the finer aspects of musical performance and receive a rating – superior, excellent, good, fair or poor – along with critique and improvement suggestions.

 

Participation in the band festival – officially named the Region 10 Spring Festival for Performance Evaluation and Assessment - is required by the WVSSAC. Region 10 includes bands from Harrison, Marion, Monongalia, Preston and Taylor counties. This year, Wirt County High School will attend as a guest school.

 

Altogether, 20 high school and 27 middle school bands are participating, a total of 2,474 student musicians.

 

The band festival began decades ago by the West Virginia Principals Association in conjunction with the West Virginia Secondary Schools Association.

 

“The thought was that by having such a festival and by the rating that would be given to each band indicating their performance level, the principal of each school would better be able to evaluate the school’s band program,” Ford said.

 

By participating at the festival, each band director is afforded opportunity to see how well his or her band performs the basic elements of musical performance, he said.

 

Originally, only high school bands were required to attend, but the festival evolved to also include middle school bands.

 

A lifelong musician, Ford has served as director of Region 10 Band Festival for 33 years. He served as band/orchestra director for the Harrison County Board of Education for 35 years, after which he took a position with Bandland of Clarksburg as music education representative. He also currently serves as substitute teacher for Harrison County Schools.

 

He enjoys all opportunities to work with band students in all stages of their education, as well as interact with school band directors.

 

“In short, music and music education is at the top of my daily priority list, falling just behind my great God and my beautiful family,” he said.

 

BHS will be the first band to perform at BHS. That audition is set for 8:30 a.m. May 1. Bands to follow will be Clay-Batelle (middle and high schools), Grafton High, Morgantown High freshmen, Barrackville Middle, Morgantown High wind ensemble, University High, Aurora Middle, Mountaineer Middle, East Fairmont Middle, Fairmont Senior High and North Marion High.

 

BMS will kick off the May 2 adjudication, also playing at 8:30 a.m. Bands to follow are Notre Dame (middle and high schools), South Preston Middle, Fairview Middle, Westwood Middle, Suncrest Middle, West Fairmont Middle, Rowlesburg Middle, Rivesville Middle and Mannington Middle. (See a full schedule for both locations HERE.)

 

Each band has 30 minutes for its audition. Spectators are welcome and encouraged, but they can only enter the gymnasium between band performances. Once an audition begins, doors will be closed until music ends so as not to create distractions.

 

Connect-Bridgeport will also share band festival results.

 

Editor's Note: Photos of BHS Band at 2018 Region 10 Band Festival are by Ben Queen Photography. Also pictured above is Michael Ford.