Hersey Marching Band Wins Class 4A Honors at the The State of Illinois Invitational High School Marching Band Championship
The John Hersey High School Marching Band earned Class 4A honors, winning Grand Champion First Place in Class 4A, as well as top awards in three other categories, at the State of Illinois Invitational High School Marching Band Championship. This was the third consecutive year that Hersey claimed the Class 4A top prize.
The Marching Huskies finished first among the six bands competing in the Class 4A competition, winning the top honor of Grand Champion. Hersey was also given the top awards for High Achievement in Music Performance, Best Crowd Appeal, and High Achievement in General Effect.
Hersey was one of only 14 bands chosen to compete in the finals, out of the 42 bands competing in the annual championship, and finished 11th overall. The annual competition event took place this past Saturday, October 20 in the Hancock stadium at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal.
"We had an extremely challenging program with this year's marching band," said Scott Casagrande, the director of bands at Hersey. "Students and our marching staff really stepped up to pull off our best show of the season in finals. It was a great culminating performance to a successful year!"
Earlier this season the Hersey Marching Band was selected as a finalist for the fourteenth consecutive year at the Lake Park Joust competition held on September 8, finishing 7th overall. They also placed 5th overall on September 29 at the Red & Black Fall Classic marching band competition at Northern Illinois University.
The theme for the Hersey Marching Band's 2018 performance was "The Threads of Fate." Musical selections included Morning at the Ranch from The Red Pony, Dance Symphony, and Symphony No. 3 by Aaron Copland, Totentanz by Franz Liszt, and Threads by Paul Lansky.
The John Hersey High School Marching Band consists of 133 musicians and color guard members, and are under the direction of Scott Casagrande. Drum majors are Dominic Borrelli, Nina Gillespie, Robert Scherer, and Alex Widomska.