Hersey Band to Perform at SuperState for Seventeenth Consecutive Year

On Saturday, May 5 the John Hersey School Symphonic Band will give it's seventeenth performance at the Illinois SuperState Concert Band Festival at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, this year as the Class AAA Honor Band.

Over 100 of the best bands in the state of Illinois submit a competitive application to play in the prestigious festival every year, but only 35 are invited to perform. Of these bands there are only five, one from each of the different classifications, that represent last year's top honors with the elite "Honor Band" performances.

Hersey captured the Honor Band designation with their 2017 performance, chosen among the bands competing in Class AAA on the Foellinger Great Hall stage in the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. Winning this high honor last year earned them the performance that will take place on the same stage this Saturday. The John Hersey High School Symphonic Band will take the stage at 12:15 p.m. to close out the Class AAA performances.

The John Hersey Symphonic Band has been selected to perform at the Illinois SuperState Concert Band Festival every year since 2001. They have won the "Honor Band" title three times, in the years 2008, 2012, and 2017.

Hersey will perform Second Prelude from "Three Piano Preludes" by George Gershwin, arranged by John Krance, and also Lost Vegas, by Michael Daugherty. The John Hersey High School Symphonic Band is under the direction of Mr. Scott Casagrande.