The first round of the New Jersey State Concert Band Festival was held at Verona High School on Tuesday night, March 22, and the VHS band received a Gold rating for its performance of “With Heart & Voice”. (We wrote about the band’s special rehearsal of the piece with former VHS Band Director Harry Owens in February.)
The band also received awards for Best Brass and Best Percussion, and junior timpani player Tyler Regino won an outstanding soloist award. Wind ensembles from Livingston and West Orange high schools also performed, as did the wind ensemble from Maplewood’s Columbia High School.
We don’t know yet whether Verona’s performance was good enough to earn a spot at the State Gala Concert later this spring. That’s because the festival, which is put on by the North Jersey School Music Association and the National Band Association, was still going on as of last evening. More than 20 bands are performing at separate competitions held at Bergenfield, Nutley and Randolph high schools. The top four bands from all these competitions will be invited to the gala, which will be Sunday, May 1.
We got this video of the band’s festival performance of “With Heart & Voice” courtesy of Rick Foy.
This just in Virgina, Not only did they take Gold at our performance on Tuesday night, they were the #1 band out of all 25 performances. So we will be closing out the Gala on May 1st. I could not be any more proud if these kids. They are wonderful!!!!
Fabulous, fabulous news. And very well deserved!