Marshall to host Festival Band Weekend

Steve Barnett, Marshall’s director of bands, who is coordinating the event, said it will be the largest ever, with 57 schools participating from Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. More than 1,000 students were nominated by their directors. The top 360 students were selected and placed into three honor bands: the John Marshall Band, the Thundering Herd Band and the Marco’s Marauders Band.

Guest conductor and clinician for the weekend will be Richard Saucedo, a composer and music educator from Carmel High School in Carmel, Ind. He will conduct one of his own new, unpublished works, titled “A Guide into the Pathway,” as part of the Showcase Concert at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 18 in Smith Recital Hall. Marshall’s Wind Symphony and percussionist Steve Hall, a Marshall faculty member, will perform the new work. The concert will also feature the Marshall Symphonic Band conducted by Dr. Ben Miller, professor of music at Marshall.

The concluding concert, featuring all three honor bands, will take place at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, in Smith Recital Hall. Saucedo will conduct the John Marshall Band. The Thundering Herd Band will be conducted by Tom Chaffin from Spring Valley High School in Huntington and the Marco’s Marauders Band will be conducted by Julia Kade from Princeton Senior High School in Princeton, W.Va.

Both festival concerts are free and open to the public.

Saucedo is director of bands and department chair at the William H. Duke Center for the Performing Arts at Carmel High School. Under his direction, Carmel bands have received numerous state and national honors in the areas of concert band, jazz band and marching band.