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Author: Tammy
Date: 2001-03-26 02:51
Why haven't I seen any high school marching bands in the northeast? I've lived in new york, vermont, new hampshire, and massachusetts and none of the high schools had marching bands. Even the two schools i attended (one very famous prep school and one pretty well known public school) in MA near boston didn't have marching bands. (i move around a lot)
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Author: Kim L
Date: 2001-03-26 03:52
In CT, there are many high school marching bands. In the town I live in, Bethel, the high school has a marching band, in addition to many surrounding towns and cities. Newtown and Southington High just marched in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Danbury High has marched in the Macy's Parade. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture. Other bands have been to the Rose, Citrus, and Orange Bowls. A band has even marched in the Yankees ticker tape parade twice. Trumbull High School marched in the inaugural parade this year.
Visit the EMBA site at www.maaemba.org to visit some CT and NJ marching band sites. I'd say that some bands in this association are amongst the best in the country!
Marching band is also very hard to fund, so that may be why you haven't seen bands in these states. However, they are around. Better than the football team if you ask me.
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Author: Jim
Date: 2001-03-26 04:46
Competitions in the mid-Atlantic Area are sanctioned by a few organazations, most especially the Tournament of Bands. Visit their web site <www.tob.org> They sanction events in 9 or 10 states from the Carolinas to New York culminating in the "Atlantic Coast Championships" held in Scranton, PA the second weekend in November.
My son is a marching band kid in a TOB member school (which makes my wife and I "Band Parents.") Nearly every High School here in South Jersey has a marching band, though not all are competitive. At present the only school in the county without a marching band is my alma mater, a Catholic High School which abolished band some years after I graduated.
(Kim, I agree with you, halftime is the best part of the football game. Many years ago when I first took my son to a competition, I explained it as like a football game without the delays caused by actually playing the sport.)
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Author: reeds08530
Date: 2001-03-26 16:42
I live in New Jersey and in some schools, marching band dominates in the fall, which i don't like- kids play the same show over and over and get a great physical education, but don't learn much music, and all of their weekends are taken up for marching competitions.
Millburn is a great school where the only marching activity is parades and football games ( they play a standstill show) and they work on WIND ENSEMBLE music in the fall. The students like it that way, the directors like it, and the parents like it. Millburn has many fine band, chorus, and orchestra musicians, there is a high level of participation, and many students are in state honors groups. YOU DO NOT NEED A COMPETITIVE MARCHING BAND TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAM, IF THE WIND ENSEMBLE IS SOLID!!
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