UTC Tri-States Honor Band
January 18-20, 2024
Cancelled Due to Weather
The UTC Tri-States Honor Band Festival will be held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, January 18-20, 2024. The Tri-States Honor Band Festival is an event developed for the purpose of recognizing the achievements of exceptional high school musicians. The festival weekend includes clinics presented by the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Music and concerts presented by the UTC Wind Ensemble and the “PRISM” concert, which features several of our wind and percussion ensembles as well as the UTC Marching Mocs marching band. This year, we will present four outstanding high school ensembles in concert, along with the two festival honor bands.
THE HONOR BANDS
For the 2024 event, we will seat one Festival Clinic Band (Blue) and one Festival Wind Ensemble (Gold) at the festival. The Festival Wind Ensemble (Gold) will be a smaller group made up of the top chair audition scores and the remainder of the participants will be places in chair order, in the Festival Clinic Band (Blue). We are excited to welcome two incredible conductors as our clinicians for the 2024 festival, Dr. Joseph Hermann and Ms. Reid Hall.
SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS
Students will be selected by a committee of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Music faculty. Information included on the student application (resume) and the band director’s recommendation will be the primary criteria used to select participants. In most cases, the committee will use the student resume and band director recommendation as sole sources of information about the students. Students and directors are encouraged to complete the resume and recommendation in detail and be sure that the required information is available to us prior to the close of registration. Each director who submits a nomination is guaranteed that at least one student from each school will be selected to participate in the festival. There is a registration fee of $10.00 per student to register for the festival. For the 2024 Tri-States Honor Band, students chosen to participate will be required to pay a participation fee of $65.00, which includes admission to all clinics, concerts and includes a Festival Participation t-shirt. This participation fee will be due AFTER students have been notified that they have been selected to participate in the Tri-States Honor Band. A list of students chosen to participate in the 2024 Tri-States Honor Band Festival will be posted on this website by mid-December. Please note: attendance at ALL concerts, classes, rehearsals, and events for the entire Honor Band Festival are REQUIRED for all student participants attending the festival! No one may leave early or arrive late.
HOUSING/MEALS/FEES
The Tri-States Honor Band does not provide housing or meals. Arrangements for housing, supervision, transportation, and meals should be taken care of by the high school director. Much more detailed information will be available to those students selected to participate in the festival.
AUDITION EXCERPTS
Flute Oboe Clarinet Bass Clarinet Contra-Bass Clarinet Bassoon Alto Sax Tenor Sax Bari Sax
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Joseph Hermann, Guest Clinician
Joseph Hermann is Director of Bands Emeritus at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee, where he served for 28 years. Under his leadership the Tennessee Tech Bands grew to a level of national prominence, over 25 new pieces were premiered, and the wind and percussion program became an influential force for bands in the Southeast. Graduates of Tech and past members of the TTU Bands are leading educators, performers in the premiere military bands, and orchestras, and composers, arrangers, recording engineers, and music business directors across the nation.
Before his appointment at Tennessee Tech in 1989, Hermann was a director at the University of Arizona, Indiana University, and East Tennessee State University. His secondary school teaching includes directing the Dowling High School Band, West Des Moines, Iowa, and supervising the Des Moines Catholic Instrumental Music Program. Under his leadership, the school music program grew to unprecedented enrollment. In addition, he served briefly as the Educational Director for Bands of America and McCormick’s Enterprises, a music corporation, in Chicago, Illinois.
Hermann is sought after as a conductor, adjudicator, and speaker and has presented clinics, workshops, and has conducted in over thirty states, in Canada, and throughout Japan. His symphonic bands have been featured ensembles at state, regional and national conventions; his interpretations have been broadcast on National Public Radio, and recordings of his ensembles have been issued as reference for music educators nationwide through music publishers and on commercial labels. He is a proponent of new music for winds, has premiered many works for band and remains an active advocate for commissioning projects.
Hermann has been a career-long member of CBDNA, NAfME, NBA, the Tennessee Bandmasters Association, has served as the editor for the New Music Reviews for the Tennessee Musician, and is a past board member of the Tennessee Music Educators Association. In 1996, Hermann was elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association, served as a member of its Board of Directors, and in 2009, Hermann functioned as the 72nd President of the ABA, served as the Chair of its Board of Directors, and currently works as Chair of the ABA Foundation. He is a member of Phi Beta Mu, a past President of the PAC-10 Band Directors Association, a past Province Governor for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and holds National Honorary membership in Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma. He is an Associate Member of ASBDA. He is the recipient of the KKѰ Distinguished Service to Music Medal in Conducting and the TBΣ Paula Crider Outstanding Band Director awards. He received the A. Austin Harding Award from the ASBDA for dedicated service to the bands of America in 2014. In 2015, Hermann was inducted into the Tennessee Bandmasters Hall of Fame. Mr. Hermann is affiliated as an Artist/Conductor/Clinician with Jupiter Band Instruments, Inc., manufacturers of band and orchestra instruments located in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, and serves as their Senior Educational Consultant. He was inducted in the National Band Association Hall of Fame for Distinguished Conductors in February 2023.
He has been married to his wife, Kay, for 53 years, and they have two daughters and five grandchildren. Even after retirement, Hermann remains enthusiastically engaged in conducting, presenting clinics, adjudication, and promoting the positive results of music education in the school curriculum.
M. Reid Hall, Guest Clinician
M. Reid Hall is the retired Director of Bands at Evans High School in Evans, Georgia. Ms. Hall, a native of York, South Carolina, received her Bachelor Degree in Music Education from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina and her Masters Degree in Music Education from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois. She retired from teaching band in the Columbia County School System after 29 years. The high school band under Ms. Hall’s direction performed in Chicago, IL for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, London, England for the New Years Day Parade and jazz performance on two different occasions, and Oahu, Hawaii for the Waikiki Holiday (Thanksgiving) Parade. The Wind Ensemble was selected to perform at the Troy University Southeastern Band Clinic in 2009 and the Concert and Marching bands continued a long tradition of outstanding performances at festivals and competitions. Prior to her position at Evans HS, Ms. Hall was the band director at Evans Middle School and assisted at the high school during marching season.
Ms. Hall was selected as “Teacher of the Year” twice while teaching at Evans Middle School and “Teacher of the Year” for the Sam’s Club in the Augusta area in the year 2000. She was named to the “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers” on numerous occasions and named “STAR” teacher in 2010 for Evans High School. The Georgia Music Educators Association awarded her the “Music Educator of the Year Award 2012.” She was also named “Teacher of the Year” at Evans High School for the school year 2013-14.
Ms. Hall was very active in the Georgia Music Educators Association, held several leadership positions in District Ten, and was the Organizing Chair for the District Honor Band Clinic for fourteen years. She is an active adjudicator and guest clinician throughout the Southeast. Ms. Hall is a member of the Georgia Music Educators Association, National Association for Music Education and the Zeta Chapter of the International Band Master’s Fraternity Phi Beta Mu. Since retirement, Ms. Hall relocated to the Atlanta area where she teaches private lessons, works as a consultant, clinician, and adjudicator. She also continues to play saxophone in the adult concert band, Savannah River Winds in Augusta, Georgia.
FEATURED PERFORMING ENSEMBLES
In addition to the Festival Honor Band performances, we are honored to welcome the following concert ensembles who will be performing as our Featured Performing Ensembles at the 2024 Tri-States Honor Band.
Farragut High School (TN) Symphonic Band, Kenneth Carrico and Rodney Brown, conductors
Kennesaw Mountain High School (GA) Wind Symphony, Michael Huebner, conductor
Pearl High School (MS) Symphonic Band, Matt Rowan, conductor
Houston County (GA) High School Wind Symphony, Jay Davis, conductor
Tara Winds (GA), Andrea Strauss, conductor