On Friday, April 24th, the Plymouth High School Band Department competed in the annual Indiana State School Music Association’s Organizational Competition for concert bands. The Plymouth Band has had many years of success at this event and this year was no exception. Both the Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble earned the highest honor of a Gold Award rating and both additionally earned Gold Awards in sight-reading.
The Wind Ensemble is the top performing group in the band department. “The Wind Ensemble is unique in that we only take one student per part. That means nobody is playing the same musical part as anyone else in the room. This makes it very tough for the students as they have to individually be fully prepared with their music,” said director Bryan Ames. “It makes it even harder when we go into the sight-reading category and the kids are forced to perform music they have never seen before and they are all by themselves on their parts.”
Both bands spent many weeks preparing the music for this event in anticipation of another outstanding year. “The kids place a tremendous amount of pressure on themselves to succeed. The band program has received nothing but Gold Award ratings for over a decade and the kids want to see this tradition of success continue.”
With the results of this competition, the Plymouth Band Department will earn their twelfth consecutive “All-Music Award” from the state music association. This award is only presented to top performing programs that earn Gold Award ratings in every ISSMA event during the school year. Programs much earn a Gold in jazz competition, solo and ensemble state finals, marching competition, and concert band competition. Plymouth High School Band is only of only a few schools in Indiana that have received this award every year since its inception.
Congratulations to the students and staff of the band program on their continued success.
Photo: (l-r) Leticia Torres, William Houser, and Karly Gruett (holding the Gold Award trophies earned by the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Symphonic Band at ISSMA competitions this year).
