Published on January 11, 2018 by Ashley Smith  
honor band festival

Samford University’s School of the Arts is hosting more than 300 students from across Alabama and surrounding states for its annual Samford Honor Band Festival Jan. 11-13. 

The program brings middle and high school musicians to campus for a variety of workshops and instruction sessions. Students go through an application and recommendation process before they are chosen to attend, according to Tim Heath, program coordinator, director of athletic bands and assistant professor of music at Samford.  

Heath explains the two and half day event, “Participants audition and work with numerous professional clinicians to prepare for a concert performance on Saturday.  Beginning on Thursday, students will participate in workshops and instructional sessions taught by 10 Samford professors, other college music academics, and prominent directors and teachers from the region.” 

The Honor Band program will culminate on Saturday with four concerts, two featuring middle school students and two with high school students. Heath will lead one of the high school bands while Kelvin Jones from Louisiana State University will conduct the other. The middle school bands will be conducted by Nancy Chambless Frith of Priceville High School and Heather Henson of American Christian Academy.

The Honor Band also features a $2,500 scholarship to pursue a music degree at Samford. The award winner is selected by a panel of faculty judges. 

Heath says, “Our Honor Band event is a great way for students to experience Samford while learning from new instructors and interacting with peer musicians from across the region.  Many of our current music students have participated in this event before attending Samford.”

The Honor Band concerts will take place on Saturday beginning at 2:30 p.m. in Samford’s Wright Center Concert Hall.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.