Band of Gold
Ohio Wesleyan will host its 50th annual President’s High School Band Festival this month. The event will feature a free community concert at 7 p.m. Jan. 18 in Gray Chapel. This photograph shows festival participants preparing for the 2012 event. (Photo by Larry Griffin)
DELAWARE, Ohio – Each year since 1964, Ohio Wesleyan University has invited the region’s most talented young musicians to participate in the annual President’s High School Band Festival.
This year’s two-day event will be held Jan. 17-18, with high school musicians from throughout Ohio and as far away as Tennessee and South Dakota participating in the hands-on workshops, Ohio Wesleyan Department of Music scholarship auditions, and free community concert.
“This festival hits a high note with the community each year,” said President Rock Jones, Ph.D. “It is exciting to watch these high school students grow as artists as they work with our music faculty and then to hear the students perform during the free community concert.”
The concert will begin at 7 p.m. Jan. 18 in Gray Chapel inside University Hall, 61 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. Ohio Wesleyan’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Park Avenue Jazz Ensemble will join the high school musicians. OWU music professor Larry Griffin, D.M.A., will conduct the concert. Griffin, a renowned trumpeter and member of the OWU faculty since 1986, also serves as festival chairman.
“This year at the festival, central Ohio will participate in OWU’s 50th year of excellence in symphonic band literature,” Griffin said. “High school students have commented the President’s High School Band Festival is a highlight of their year. They find attending the festival and touring our campus is a wonderful way to experience the highly intellectual yet welcoming culture of Ohio Wesleyan University.”
Music scheduled to be performed at the public concert includes “The Fair Day” by Sir Hamilton Harty; “Jubilateo” (Fanfare and Allegro) by Samuel Hazo; “America: A Tone Poem” by John Philip Sousa; “Wild Nights!” by Frank Ticheli; and “Laideronnette, Imperatrice des Pagodes,” by Maurice Ravel.
The concert also will be streamed live online at https://www.owu.edu/about/follow-owu/stream-owu/.
Visit the Ohio Wesleyan Department of Music website at https://www.owu.edu/academics/departments-programs/department-of-music/ to learn more about the department, faculty, public performance schedule, and upcoming 50th anniversary President’s High School Band Festival.
Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private, coed university offers more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Ohio Wesleyan combines a challenging, internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities to connect classroom theory with real-world practice. OWU’s 1,850 students represent 42 states and 37 countries. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.