The Gainesville High School Band is celebrating yet another very successful competition season. 

The band recently performed at four Florida Marching Band Coalition (FMBC) competitions and the District IV Florida Bandmasters Association (FBA) Marching Performance Assessment.  Band members put in more than two hundred hours to perfect their competition show, including almost 90 hours of band camp, 10 to 13 hours in practice each week and 12  plus hours for Saturday practice and competitions. The show, entitled “One Hand, One Heart,” is a combination of music from Leonard Bernstein’s musical  Westside Story and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. It includes more than 90 sets of marching drill, costumes and colorful flags provided by the color guard. 

The GHS band’s achievements this season include:  Straight Superiors at the FBA Marching Performance Assessment, keeping up the tradition of 62 years of consecutive Straight Superiors at Marching MPA; a third consecutive Grand Championship at the Southern Showcase of Champions FMBC competition at Santa Fe High School;  Grand Champion at the Taylor County FMBC Competition; second place at State FMBC in class 3A, with Best Music Performance in class 3A, finishing behind the first place band, Stoneman Douglas, by 9/10 of a point; 4^th place overall in the state out of over 80 bands that qualified to participate in FMBC state competition, and the only Alachua County band to finish in the top 5 in the state. 

The GHS band has also repeatedly won awards this season for Best Performance in Class, Best Performance in Show, Best Music Performance, Best Visual Performance, Best General Effect, Best Drum Major, Best Percussion Performance, Best Woodwind Performance and Best Color Guard in Class.

“This has been a great season,” said Mary Ann Sickon, GHS band director for 22 years. “Everyone had a lot of fun performing this show. It has been one of my best seasons ever.” 

Her students share her excitement about the highly successful season.  “It was great to see everyone working together to achieve one of our biggest goals, which was winning the Southern Showcase of Champions for the third consecutive year,” said junior Dean Crislip, who plays the trumpet. Dean is one of the many band students in the junior class who were freshmen when the band began the tradition of winning Showcase. 

“Marching season was very exciting this year,” agree Alicia Thomas, a sophomore flute player. “We were happy to finish second in the state and win Showcase for the third time.” 

“We are so proud of the students because they have worked so hard and put in so many hours for this and it definitely paid off,” said Bill Pirzer, the band’s co-director. “The GHS band is really the place to be.” 

The band is now preparing for its Winter Concert on December 18^th, 7:00pm at the GHS Auditorium (1900 NW 13^th Street). After the winter holidays the band will begin preparing for concert season, during which it will perform at the Florida Bandmasters Association Concert Music Performance Assessment. The band has another tradition it is seeking to continue at that performance-- 22 years of Superior ratings.

For more information on the GHS Band or to view pictures of its competition season, please visit the band’s website: www.gainesvillehighschoolband.com