AMHERST – On Saturday, February 10, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Music and Dance will present the 33rd Annual High School Honor Band, featuring over 250 outstanding high school musicians from 34 schools from around the region (see complete list below).
Coordinated by UMass Wind Studies Director Matthew Westgate, this annual program provides New England’s finest wind and percussion students with the opportunity to rehearse and perform wind band literature of the highest caliber with Westgate, UMass Marching Band Director Timothy T. Anderson, Music Education Professor Sara K. Jones, and a special guest composer of national renown.
This year’s guest composer is Joni Greene, an Austin-based composer of music for wind band, choir, orchestra, chamber ensemble, and chamber opera. Greene’s music is regularly performed throughout the United States and Canada and has received a number of international premieres. Recent and notable awarded prizes include the 2nd and 3rd Frank Ticheli competition, ASCAP/Lotte Lehman “Damien Top” Prize, and the ACC Band Directors Association Emerging Artist Grant.
The schedule for the day will include an “Educator Track” for high school and middle school band conductors, which includes sessions taught by UMass faculty members, a lunch with music education students and faculty, a session with Joni Greene about repertoire and commissioning, and a private UMass Wind Ensemble performance.
The day-long event will culminate with a performance of works by Joni Greene and others by members of the Honor Band, their instructors, and the UMass Wind Ensemble. The concert will take place at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall, and is free and open to the public.
Westfield High School band plays under Director Patrick Kennedy during the 2018 inauguration. (Photo by Lynn Boscher)
Participating High Schools and Band Directors:
| Agawam High | Bill Hueglin |
| Belchertown High | Brian Messier |
| Bellingham High | Marie Forte |
| Burlington High | Sean Buchsbaum |
| Chicopee High | Allison Ingraham |
| Clinton High | Kate Meifert |
| Douglas High | Gery Elliott |
| Gateway Regional | Beth Guertin |
| Granby High | Greg A. Williams |
| Hazen Union | Mason D. Mills |
| Ludlow High | Kevin McAvoy |
| Minnechaug Regional | Margaret E. Reidy |
| Nipmuc Regional | Simon Harding |
| North Attleboro High | Thomas Rizzo |
| Northampton High | Deborah Coon |
| Northbridge High | James Verdone |
| Pioneer Valley Regional | Timothy Burns |
| Rockland Senior High | John Piazza Jr. |
| Salem High | Cynthia Napierkowski |
| Sci-Tech High | Gary Bernice |
| Shrewsbury High | Brian Liporto |
| South Hadley High | Ryan Caster |
| Springfield Central | Ray Dandurand |
| Stevens High | Katja Kleyensteuber |
| Sutton Memorial | Justin Falvo |
| Turners Falls High | Kayla Roth |
| Twin Valley Middle/High | Karen Horton |
| Wachusett Regional | James Shetler |
| Wahconah Regional | Brian Rabuse |
| Westborough High | Evan Doyle |
| Westfield High | Patrick Kennedy |
| Westford Academy | George Arsenault |
