2023 Middle School Honor Band

Marshall University School of Music is proud to announce the Middle School Honor Band Festival will be held at the Marshall University on November 17th, 2023.

Registration is now open!

The Middle School Honor Band Festival is an event developed for the purpose of recognizing the achievements of exceptional middle school musicians. The festival includes rehearsal/final concert preparations with quality clinicians from successful public school teachers. This year, we will seat two middle school honor bands at the festival. The Festival Honor Bands will be made up of a Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band. Students will be placed appropriately in the festival honor bands.

Honor Band Details

Clinicians

Eric Staats, Capitol High School

Keith Carper, Huntington East Middle School

Registration & Payment Information

Band Directors: You will submit nominations in 12-student increments here, using this online nomination form. Please include all necessary information for you and your students and nominate them in order of preference. You can nominate up to 12 students at one time. If you have additional students you would like to nominate, you can simply submit another nomination form after the first. Please note: Your first 12 students will receive priority when it comes to placing students in bands and it is not guaranteed that every student will be able to participate, however, we will do our best.

The deadline for nomination submissions is October 20th. Students will then be placed into one of two bands of balance performance levels and we will then try to distribute music. Notification of who made the honor band and which band they are in will be provided by November 1st.

Once the students are placed in ensembles, we will email all directors an invoice for their student(s). Directors, boosters, budget keepers, or parents can pay online via the links that will be sent with the invoice. The cost of attending the MU Festival Band is $20.00 per student. Students will receive a t-shirt and certificate of participation. Credit cards and checks are accepted.  You may use one check or several, made out to “Kappa Kappa Psi.”

Schedule of Events (tentative)

8:30 – Director/student check-in
9:30 – Rehearsal #1
11:45 – Lunch
1:30 – Rehearsal # 2
3:30 – Break
4:00 – MU Symphonic Band & Wind Symphony
5:00 – Dinner and change for concert
6:30 – Stage set up, first band in seats
7:00 – Concert Starts

Meals

All campus dining facilities at the Memorial Student Center and Harless Dining Hall will be open. Students may also go off-campus to eat. There are several restaurants and fast food places within easy walking distance from campus. We will not offer lunch on Friday through our music department as we have in the past.

Hotels

There are many hotels in the Huntington/Barboursville/Ashland area available for housing during the Honor Band Festival.

Upcoming Wind Band Performances

The Marshall University Wind Bands new concert season begin this fall. Stay tuned for dates and times.

All concerts can be found on our YouTube Channel here.

News

Marching Thunder Events

Fall 2023 Performance Schedule
This schedule is subject to change over the course of the summer. All performance are at at MU unless otherwise noted.

August

10th – 19thBand Camp
19th – Friends & Family Performance

September
2nd – Home game vs. Albany/Band Day
23rd – Home game vs. Virginia Tech
26th – Gazzette Mail Festival
30th – Home game vs. ODU – Homecoming! Alumni, come on back!

October
19th (Thurs.) – Home game vs. JMU
20th (Fri.) – Logan High School
28th – Tri-State Marching Championships

November
11th – Home game vs. Georgia Southern
25th – Home game vs. Arkansas State

December
2nd – Possible SBC Championships

Additional post season performances – TBD