High Schools Compete at MU School of Music

Sharply dressed in clean suits and lovely dresses, the instrumentalists had taken their places on stage. No baton needed here, the notes were flowing flawlessly out of them. 

The crowd jumps for a standing ovation by the grand finale. The festival had begun with applause. 

Marshall University kicked off its opening night of the High School Honor Band Festival Thursday night with its wind symphony concert. 

The festival was hosted by the university’s school of music and open to current high school students interested in musical careers. Registered students were invited with their school’s musical organizations or available to come solo if their school was not taking part in this year’s festival. 

Students were put into four different honor bands after arriving and would be working with their respected group directors. 

Thursday started the festival with Marshalls Wind Symphony, composed of wind and percussion instruments, giving a concert for the high school students to introduce them to the school of music. 

“It is so wonderful to see all of you on campus again. It’s been a little while, more than a couple of years,” said Martin Saunders, Marshall University’s director of the School of Music, as he introduced himself to the high schoolers and band directors and welcomed many of them back to the school. Saunders also mentioned the innovations the school of music had made since the last time they held the festival. 

The Wind Symphony was conducted by Dr. Adam Dalton, a professor at the school of music and conductor of Marshalls Wind Symphony. “We have an absolutely amazing weekend planned for you and I know it will be a positive life changing experience for you,” said Dalton. 

When introducing the band and himself, Dalton mentioned that many of the on-stage players of the Wind Symphony had been previous high school students that had visited the university and listened to the Wind Symphony during the Honor Band Festival. Dalton asked these band members to stand up, showing that half of the members had been part of the audience previously.  

Dalton said onstage to the high school crowd that he was happy to have them all there and wanted them to make the most of their experience. “I hope that you have the opportunity to soak up as much knowledge as you can, make some new friends, meet some new people, play some new music, and just generally have a great time,” said Dalton. 

Between pieces Dalton also introduced the other band directors in town for the festival, one of which was a graduate of Marshall and former Huntington resident, Dr. David Waybright. Waybright is currently the director of bands at the University of Florida. He took stage as a guest director of the Wind Symphony for a piece during the concert. 

Dalton was also glad to be back in person for the festival, seeing it as a celebration. “For me, this entire event is about celebrating being together again, making music, and having a lot of fun,” said Dalton. 

The Wind Symphony ended its concert with a unique piece that encouraged the audience to voice their approval of the music called “Shout,” written by a school friend of Dalton. Dalton told the audience to feel free to clap and cheer during the piece, as he said “this isn’t the kind of piece where you have to sit quietly and wait for your turn to clap. Enjoy it.” 

Dalton said “Shout” was written to sound like a revival that gets the crowd excited. The piece did exactly that as the crowd had begun to shout and cheer for the band, getting them up for a standing ovation by the end. After the piece, Dalton turned to the audience to bow along with his band, and said, “Makes you wanna shout, doesn’t it?” 

Friday students started the day rehearsing, moving to the afternoon where they were entertained with a concert by Marshalls Symphonic Band and interested seniors had the chance to audition for MU Music. After the concert they went back to rehearsing for the remainder of the day. 

Students spent Saturday morning doing final rehearsals to prepare themselves for their final concert that evening where they would be playing for their parents and high school band directors conducted by directors of music from other schools. 

Students that were part of the festival practiced the pieces their directors chose over the course of the festival.  

The directors that led the clinic bands for the festival were Brent Hunt, band director at Russell High School in Kentucky. Dr. Christopher Schletter, Marshalls Director of Athletic Bands. Theresa Elliot, a retired public Tennessee music teacher. And Dr. David Waybright, Director of Bands at the University of Florida. 

 Schletter said that “they are fantastic to work with. They are very attentive, and they are great musicians.”  

“We did challenge them a bit this weekend,” said Schletter. “That was pretty impressive in three days, though,” in reference to the work they played onstage. 

Hunt said that “We learned a lot and we grew a lot. From day one I could tell they wanted to be better musicians.” Hunt said that his members would only grow from there. “The sky is the limit.” 

Elliot said that she was very pleased with her members’ efforts and dedication to learning their pieces in such a short time. “They didn’t get the music until Thursday night. They didn’t know the people around them. They certainly didn’t know me. They have stepped up to the plate and they have been the best.” 

Waybright spoke of his return to Marshall during his band’s turn on stage. He said that the reasoning for picking his pieces was “Its a river town. So, I came back, and I’d like to share some river tunes with you.” 

Students that were part of the festival were given a custom Honor Band Festival T-shirt and medal. MU Chapter of the Society of Composers recorded the weekends concerts and were available to preorder at the festival. The concerts were also live streamed to Marshalls School of Music YouTube channel. 

Dalton revealed a new tradition for the High School Honor Band festival at the concert. The new tradition would be awards for Marshall University Honor Band Outstanding Musicianship, a $2,000 participation waver for the school of Music. The awards were presented onstage to the students picked by the directors for the most effort put into the festival.