the marching band students practiced in sweltering heat in the summer and kept working through the fall.
Band and choir students spent their winter afternoons mastering solos and playing with their peers in ensembles. They wrapped up their year in the spring playing in concert band and jazz invitationals.
Thousands of students who play or sing in local high school bands and choirs contributed to awards for their high school.
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Local high schools and middle schools won the Indiana State School Music Association All-Music Award. Recipients earn the award by performing well enough to earn a gold rating in multiple ISSMA events across several genres.
Center Grove High School, Franklin Community High School and Whiteland Community High School’s band departments all won. Band awards are given to schools who earn gold in marching band events, solo and ensemble events, jazz events and concert band events.
Clark-Pleasant Middle School and Franklin Community Middle School also won the award for their band departments.
Greenwood Community High School was one of a dozen schools in Indiana that won the full department award.
Full department award winners demonstrate that both their band and choir departments have robust enough programs that students earn gold ratings in multiple events for both band and choir. Choirs earned the all-music award by earning gold in show choir or jazz events, solo and ensemble events and ISSMA organizational contests.
The award is meant to reward schools for offering their students a well-rounded music education and that is what the schools are striving to give their students, music teachers said.
“The biggest reason and the reason the award was designed was to reward programs that give the students a balanced experience,” Greenwood band director John Morse said.
Winning the award takes hard work from students all year.
The band department award work begins in the summer when students are marching and learning their music and choreography during band camp. Students then compete most of the school year in other bands. Choir students are working on their routines throughout the year too.
About 350 students, or 25 percent of the student body at Greenwood, are in band or choir, meaning that those students must work hard all year to earn the award, Morse said.
“It is really just a lot of good planning and working with our students, because they are really the ones who have to do the work to do those things,” he said.
Earning the award is typically a goal for Greenwood. However, the award is earned when the directors push for excellence and the students deliver, Daniel Borns, choral director at Greenwood, said.
“I think it says that we are striving for excellence and that we are meeting most of our goals year in and year out,” he said.
ISSMA began giving the award to help entice schools to offer their students more diverse music programs. Whiteland has earned the band all-department award for 11 consecutive years band director Pete Sampson said.
Students learn more when they are able to grasp multiple genres of band and types of music, he said.
“I think offering a well-rounded curriculum is the core of what we do,” Sampson said.
