For the second consecutive year, the Verona High School Concert Band has been selected to participate in the Mid-Atlantic Honors Wind Band Festival at Rutgers University on February 25. The VHS Band will perform with the Hillsborough High School Wind Ensemble, the Bridgewater-Raritan High School Wind Ensemble and the Rutgers University Symphonic Band in this prestigious event.
Verona’s audition compact disc was sent to an independent panel of adjudicators led by Dr. Stanley Saunders, retired president of the Canadian Bandmasters Association (now the Canadian Band Association) and chairman of the Music Department at the University of Guelph in Canada’s Ontario province. This panel listened to each CD without knowledge of the school name or director.
According to Superintendent Charles Sampson, of the six schools selected to this two-day festival, Verona is the smallest; the four other schools are all Group 4 schools containing a minimum of 1,000 students, while Verona students number fewer than 600. “It’s a tremendous honor,” he says.
