Band Festival is next week and begins early

The Georgia Music Educators Association Band Festival will be held next week, Tuesday, March 13, through Thursday, March 15, at the Cairo High Auditorium. The 3 Cairo High School Bands perform on Tuesday – Cairo Concert at 4 p.m., Cairo Symphonic 5:30 p.m., and Cairo Symphony Band at 8 p.m.  
The Whigham Band will perform on Tuesday at 10 a.m., Shiver’s 6th Grade Band performs at 11 a.m., and Shiver’s 7th & 8th Grade at 1:30 p.m. Washington Middle School 7th & 8th Grade Band plays on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. There is no admission charge, and the band students are looking for you to be there to support them in their performances.  
This year, 42 bands from across south Georgia are slated to perform in the CHS Auditorium for a panel of distinguished judges. The Whigham Band and the two Shiver Bands will play on Tuesday, while the Washington Middle School Band will play on Thursday. The three Cairo High Bands will play on Tuesday, March 13.  
As has become a tradition here, the three Cairo High Bands will be presenting their programs at the annual Festival Concert to be held this Sunday afternoon, March 11, at the Cairo High Auditorium. The program will begin at 2:30 p.m. Director of bands Johnny Folsom is excited about the program. “The Sunday afternoon concert is a great way to hear the music that all three groups will perform for the judges at festival.”
The Cairo High Concert Band is playing a grade III program consisting of the Karl King march “Fidelity,” Michael Sweeney’s contemporary work “Silverbrook,” and an exciting new piece, “Arabian Dances” by Roland Barrett. The Symphonic Band’s grade IV selections include “Valley Forge March,” Brian Balmages’ “Reverberations,” and James Hosay’s “Spring Festival Overture.” The grade V/VI program performed by the CHS Symphony Band consists of “The Black Horse Troop” by John Philip Sousa, a stirring tribute to the memory of a legendary Texas band director by David Holsinger entitled “Consider the Uncommon Man,” and Robert W. Smith’s exciting and challenging third movement from his symphony on Dante’s “Divine Comedy” – “The Ascension.”
A complete program of dates and times of area bands is listed, and director Folsom invites all to come out and hear as many of the groups as possible during the three-day event. And remember, the Festival Concert is this Sunday, March 11, at 2:30 p.m.