QACHS Holding Tournament of Bands Competition – Saturday, September 24, 2016
The Queen Anne’s County High School (QACHS) Band and its Boosters will be sponsoring a Tournament of Bands (TOB) Competition at QAC High School on September 24, 2016 from 12 PM to 4 PM. Marching Bands from Maryland and Delaware are participating in the competition. The event will start off with the Sudlersville Middle School Band playing our National Anthem. The first band in the competition will be the Kent Island High School Marching Band at 12:30 PM, which will be followed by 10 other high school marching bands, which includes an “exhibition” performance by QACHS of this year’s show, entitled “A Pirates Adventure.” Centreville Middle School’s Marching Band will conclude the show by performing Spirit of America. Once all performances are complete, an awards ceremony will commence.
This is a fantastic opportunity for the QAC community to come out and support our talented youth and witness their teamwork, commitment, and love of music in action. This event also serves as a fundraiser for the band program, which enables the students to compete in the Mid-Atlantic Region Competitions and potentially go to Hershey, Pennsylvania at end of October 2016 for the Atlantic Coast Championships (ACC).
Please come out and support our local High School and Middle School bands. The admission charge is $8 and children under 12 are free. There will be food and beverages available during the competition, just like at all the QACHS sports events held on the main playing field behind the school. All proceeds from concessions also support the QACHS Band Program. For more information, please contact: Queen Anne’s County High School; 410-758-0500; http://qacps.schoolwires.net/.
The Tournament of Bands sanctions about 140 marching band competitions throughout each fall, corresponding roughly with the high school football season. Bands are judged on a 100 point linear scale by judges both on the field and in the press box. Bands are also divided into four groups based on their size, and judged only within their group.
In addition to the group sizes, there are three levels of performance classification that a member may elect to participate:
• Open (O) Class (formerly Championship)
• “A” Class (formerly Regional)
• Festival (F) Class
The Kent Island High School Marching Band and the Queen Anne’s County High School Marching Band do not compete against each other. Kent Island is classified as a 1-F band and Queen Anne’s County is classified as a 2-O.
The other bands in the competition are:
• Lake Forest HS, Felton, DE: 3-A
• Wicomico HS, Salisbury, MD: 3-A
• Colonel Richardson HS, Federalsburg, MD: 1-O
• Chesapeake HS, Pasadena, MD: 1-O
• Caesar Rodney HS, Camden, DE: 4-O
• J.M. Bennett HS, Salisbury, MD: 3-O
• Appoquinimink HS, Middletown, DE: 3-O
• Parkside HS, Salisbury, MD: 3-O
• Huntingtown HS, Huntingtown, MD: 2-O
TOB contests are held year round throughout a nine-state area that makes up the mid-Atlantic region. TOB was founded in 1972 by the National Judges Association, www.njatob.org and currently has 439 member bands. Originally founded in 1960, the National Judges Association (NJA) is the primary provider of adjudication services and is the parent group of the Tournament of Bands (TOB). Throughout the year, TOB provides a large array of competitive performance opportunities including marching band, percussion, indoor guard, majorette, and dance teams. TOB sanctions approximately 140 field band events as well as about 100 indoor events annually. For each competition, judges provide the bands with feedback on their performance that is a critical element to the growth and improvement process of each band.
In the fall, Tournament of Bands provides a competitive arena for marching bands. Hundreds of marching bands compete in “field” shows from September through November. The TOB All-Star Marching Band represents the association annually in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The National Judges Association was founded for the advancement and education of its membership in adjudication of all pageantry-oriented events and to promote the advancement of pageantry-oriented arts for youth in both scholastic and independent endeavors. Member school seniors can apply for college scholarships that are provided each year.