Meg Opalka (center) warms up on her clarinet  with a group of band students from across New England during the John Philip Sousa National Honors Band Festival held at Bromfield last week. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

The Bromfield Music Department hosted the fourth biennial New England Region John Philip Sousa National Honors Band Festival from April 23 to 25. The John Philip Sousa Foundation initially organized the festival in 1981 in honor of John Philip Sousa and to support and promote wind band music in high schools throughout the country. Recently the foundation expanded the program to recognize talented junior high school-level band students in seventh, eighth, and ninth grades.

The New England regional program was open to outstanding woodwind, brass, and percussion players from Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont. Tom Reynolds, director of the Bromfield Music Department, has hosted the Junior Honors Band Festival every two years since 2002. This year Bromfield hosted a combined junior and senior band festival with students from grades 7 through 12. Eleven Bromfield students, in grades 7 to 11, were among the 256 students to participate in four honors bands: Sousa Junior Blue Cadet Honors Band, Junior Red Cadet Honors Band, Senior Honors Concert Band, and Senior Honors Symphonic Band.

Bromfield eighth-graders Dan Jackson (left) and Sam Beebe-Lepidus play in the festival. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

Students are accepted to the festival based on their individual musical excellence, experience, and recommendations from their music directors. Bromfield students who were selected included: seventh-graders Diane LaMattino, Veronica Lee, and Kate Marinelli on flute, and Meg Opalka on clarinet; eighth-graders Daniel Jackson on baritone sax and Sam Beebe-Lepidus and Janet Sorells on French horn; ninth-graders Molly Gormley and Bernadette Stadler on flute; 10th-grader Philip Stapleton on tenor sax; and 11th-grader Jimmy McPhee on trombone. Both Molly Gormley and Bernadette Stadler study with Harvard resident and flutist Claire Rindenello. Many of the students have also participated in other musical festivals open to Bromfield students this year, including Junior and Senior Central Districts and the New England Music Festival.

Philip Stapleton, a saxophone player who had played in the festival as a seventh-grader, was enthusiastic about the performance and enjoyed playing and meeting student musicians from other New England schools. He said he was pleased that the Bromfield students were compatible with the other students. Stapleton, one of 62 students in the Senior Honors Symphonic Band, was comfortable with the music selection, he said. The repertoire ranged from traditional American tunes such as “Red River Valley” to larger, majestic works commissioned for the United States Armed Forces and Army bands. “It was a very wide range for us,” said Stapleton. “The excerpts from Lord of the Rings alone had multiple parts that were very different. We also played a very odd Sousa march, one of only three to end quietly, without a ‘stinger’.” Stapleton indicated that the experience was different than playing with the Bromfield band due to the size and number of instruments, giving the music a fuller sound.

Bernadette Stadler, a newcomer to the festival, said she had fun playing challenging music and making friends from all over New England who shared the same interest. Stadler said her favorite pieces were “Lord of the Rings,” which was marked by contrasting excerpts and enchanting tunes, and “Hymn to the Fallen” by John Williams, which was “very meaningful. Our director, Dr. Grimo, dedicated it to the men and women in service,” she said.  Stadler participated in the festival with her close friend Molly Gormley, also a flutist. They enjoyed meeting new people from all over New England and talking with their stand partners during breaks. “Molly and I would definitely do it again next time,” she added.

The high school bands were both conducted by former military band directors. The principal guest conductor of the Senior Honors Symphonic Band (grades 11 and 12) was Capitan Lewis J. Buckley, retired director of the United States Coast Guard Academy Bands of New London, Conn., and presently the director of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony in Boston. Buckley led the 62-member Symphonic Band in three challenging pieces by Gustav Holst, James Curnow, and himself. The High School Concert Band (grades 9 and 10) was conducted by Dr. Steven Grimo, retired conductor and commander of the United States Air Force Academy Band at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., and presently the director of music at Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs. Grades 7 and 8 were presented in two bands. The Red Junior Cadet Band was conducted by Linda J. Gammon, director of bands at Rachel Carson Middle School in Fairfax, Va. The principal guest conductor of the Blue Junior Cadet Band was Pamela Potter, director of bands at Quincy-Notre Dame High School in Quincy, Ill.