Ohio University’s Symphonic Band, Wind Symphony and Marching 110 are coming together Thursday night for the first-ever Band-O-Rama.
The concert, which features three of the OU band program’s premier ensembles, will entertain the public and incoming high school band students at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.
Band-O-Rama is also the beginning of the Ohio University Honor Band Festival, where high school band members from across different Ohio metropolitan areas come in for the weekend to participate in the event.
“(Band-O-Rama) is a showcase that shows off the bands here, and allows the students who are participating to see maybe what they could do if they came here, if they play in these ensembles,” said Andrew Trachsel, the director of bands at OU and the conductor of the Wind Symphony.
Trachsel said that under the quarter system, the Honor Band Festival was held in early January, but now that semesters are in place, moving the festival to the end of the fall made a lot of sense.
Josh Boyer, a graduate associate for the university bands, said that the idea of the concert would to be to showcase what each band does.
“After the Marching 110 play ‘Stand Up and Cheer’ …we’ll be playing one from the season, or one of our standards for the kids, and that’s all there is to it,” he said. “The marching band will dance out, and that will be it (for the festival to begin).”
The festival itself will take place Friday and Saturday, where the high school students, who auditioned earlier in the year, will receive music to rehearse as a group as well as in individual sections.
“You hope that (Band-O-Rama) will be a bit of a motivator for the festival,” said Ken Will, graduate associate for the university bands. “This is the model, this is the sound we want to bring that they should be striving for, that should be in their heads.”
Saturday at 4 p.m., the high school students will hold a concert of their own, also in MemAud, to showcase their progress.
“I think it will be a lot of fun,” Trachsel added. “It will just be little windows into what each one of these bands does.”
ds834910@ohiou.edu
