District Wind Band Festival, Our Way

The secondary band teachers of Jurupa Unified School District came together to host our first Wind Band Festival in the newly built Elliott N. Duchon Concert Hall, and created guidelines and started traditions that made our festival a special and unique experience for our students.

Due to various factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, our middle schools have not been able to attend our state’s judged festivals for many years. Our main objective was giving the middle school band programs the opportunity to experience festivals in a low-cost, low-stakes environment that prepares them for when they are able to go to a “real” festival, while also showcasing our high school ensembles and what they would get to be a part of one day. We also wanted to showcase our band directors, who can sometimes be intimidating figures, and demonstrate to students that as serious as judged events can be, ultimately, music should be fun.

The middle school students were the main focus of the initiative so they could experience what a judged festival would be like, but also as a way to recruit and retain for the future. We invited district personnel and school board members to attend, as well as site administration, to showcase some of the most important moments of our school year that they don’t typically get to witness. This was also the first time in a long time that all of the secondary band teachers got together to work on a major project like this, so it was the first step in unity after years of what felt like unintentional fracture due to high turnaround and scheduling.

The idea was brought up at our spring planning meeting in May 2023, but did not begin the actual process until later in the following school year.

December

• General planning and walkthroughs of the concert hall to figure out logistics.
• Meet with secondary band teachers to confirm attendance and participation.
• Plan out “Avengers Band”.

January

• Create planning document, decide on processes.
• Inform District Personnel and site admin about plan.

February

• Seating charts and repertoire finalization.
• Send program to JUSD Print Shop.
• Invite District and Site admin and board members.
• Select award winners from Middle Schools.
• Host Festival!

March

• Debrief of this year, notes about what to fix for next year.

Dave Doubravsky (Assistant Superintendent of the Arts and Expanded Learning), Josh Lewis (Director of Secondary Education), Site Principals Kevin Corridan (Rubidoux HS), Corrine Ortiz (Del Sol Academy), Alicia Heimer (Mission MS), Shelley Morris (Jurupa Valley HS), Damien Hernandez (Patriot HS): supporting the site programs and coming together to provide a meal for our students during the event.

Nidia Rojas Del Real (JUSD Communications Department) taking pictures for district social media, with support from Jacqueline Paul.

Sarah Choi (Rubidoux HS) hosting on Rubidoux’s campus, outreach to District personnel for support, planning.

Julie Enciso (Jurupa Valley HS) outreach to District communications department to get photos taken of the event, and to be shared through District social media.

Christopher Case (Patriot HS), Amy Bandy (Del Sol Academy), Jay Hakomaki (Jurupa MS), and Ross Yohonn (Mission MS) assisting with planning and bringing their ensembles to Rubidoux HS, as well as performing in the special performance.

Jeffery Lin (Rubidoux HS Choral Director) ran the house for the event, including A/V, lights, ushering, cleanup, and management.

Isaac Vazquez (Ontario-Montclair School District elementary band teacher and Rubidoux HS Alumnus) guest performer in special performance.

Non-Wind Ensemble Rubidoux HS students served as stagehands, hosts, and served the meal to the guests.

We used the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) judging sheets as a rubric for judging, though we did not give ratings.

We used Canva.com to create flyers and a program to share with site and district personnel, and communicated with them early on to ask for support. Middle school directors spent time in their classrooms going through the rubric and expectations of what the experience would be like, generating excitement among the students for the upcoming event.

$795.93 – Pizza, chips, waters, utensils for students, directors, and guests, provided by site and district administration.

$32.99 – Medals for middle school awards recipients.

One of the major challenges we found in the planning process was just getting the idea up and running. It had been a desire of the secondary band directors for a long time to do something together, but it wasn’t until the Concert Hall was built on our campus that we were able to get it off paper and bring it to reality. But because this was an event that we had never done before, we had to build the idea from scratch. We knew we want it to be a very close simulation of a real festival event, but wanted to make it unique to our district and ultimately give the students a great time. We communicated frequently through email as a team and was able to figure it all out in time for the event.

We also were unsure of how to involve our district and site administration without asking for too much. We wanted to ensure our students had a meal together and discussed what that would look like if we all pitched in, or if our boosters covered it, or if we were going to ask kids to bring $5 to pay for it. Our site principals came together and pitched in without us even knowing and covered the cost of feeding over 200 students. We only found out after the event of their generosity.

We could not have been more proud of how the event turned out. Both the high school and the middle school students all reported the next day how fun and memorable the festival had been. Quantifiable data includes an increase in numbers for all of the high school programs, as well as better retention between 7th and 8th grade at the middle schools. Anecdotally, this year’s freshmen seem far less nervous about high school band and are more willing to build a relationship with their high school directors than in previous years. They are also excited about how we are going to “top” last year’s festival.

The initiative was an incredibly positive experience for our individual programs, as well as the music department as a whole. The secondary band teachers walked away from it feeling as though we are all closer as a district, and felt accomplished. We had two school board members and our superintendent attend the event and speak highly of how the students played and conducted themselves throughout the evening.

While we did not give ratings for the festival to reduce the amount of pressure the students would feel on stage, the directors prepared special awards for students that align with our values as a district (Most improved musician, Secret Weapon Award (for the great quiet kid who doesn’t usually get acknowledged), Ensemble Leader Award, Esprit de Corps/Ensemble Hype and Pride Award). We had a chance to acknowledge the middle school students who were exceptional in their programs for reasons besides talent.

We also had a special performance at the end that was a secret surprise, except for the few Rubidoux HS students who were helping to run the event. Each teacher dressed up as a member of the Marvel Avengers, and we came onstage to perform The Avengers Theme, arranged by Johnnie Vinson. The students were shocked and excited, and it made the silliness of it all worth it.

The high school music world is full of pitfalls of competition and comparison, but coming together to give our students this experience was one of the most rewarding endeavors we’ve done.

Don’t wait for conditions to be perfect before attempting to start. We regretted waiting so long to get an event like this off the ground, full of fears and nerves of what wouldn’t work. When we asked for help, we received it. When we attempted, we succeeded.

Something we considered a great deal after the event was how to incorporate parents. The Concert Hall has limited seating, so we only had enough room for the students and the district guests. Many parents expressed that they wanted to watch their children perform. We are also working on ways to fight fatigue throughout the evening. Each ensemble was allotted 20 minutes for setup, warmup, performance, and teardown, so it ended up being a long night. The students did a great job trying to stay focused throughout, but we are looking to see how we can break up the evening or shorten it.