MSA Bands Headed to Sebastopol Festival

will send students from its intermediate and its advanced level concert bands to play in the 14th annual Fall Festival of Music on Saturday at Analy High School in Sebastopol.

The two-day event, in which 19 orchestras and bands from high and middle schools in Sonoma and Marin counties perform before a panel of judges, is free and open to the public.

Students in the school’s intermediate concert band, mostly 9th graders, are scheduled to perform  at 11:30 a.m. Saturday and the advanced band, primarily 10th and 11th graders, close the show with the final performance at 4 p.m. Saturday. Marin School of the Arts is an arts academy within Novato High School.

Bands and orchestras will be performing Friday 2:30 to 8 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Analy High auditorium.  The full Fall Festival Schedule is available on the Analy Band Wagon website www.analybandwagon.org.

Immediately following performances, a panel of  judges from Bay Area college music programs will be on hand to evaluate the bands.  This year’s music faculty judges include Eric Hammer of the University of the Pacific, Joe Perea of Santa Rosa Junior College and Martin Seggelke of San Francisco State University.

“The Fall Festival is always a high point in our year,”  says Vance Regan, director of the Analy instrumental  music  program.  “It's a terrific opportunity for students to get feedback from top-flight college directors early in the year when it can do the most good.” 

The Analy High orchestra  and its Intermediate, Advanced and Honor bands will participate in separate performances, along with the West County middle schools of Brookhaven in Sebastopol, Twin Hills and Hillcrest.

Santa Rosa will be represented by the Maria Carillo High symphony, as well as by bands from  Rincon Valley Middle School, Rincon Valley Charter and Slater Middle School.  Windsor  High is sending its string orchestra to play on Saturday morning and Windsor Middle School will be represented by its honor strings and its honor band on Friday afternoon.  The Casa Grande High School symphony will play on Saturday.  

For more information and the performance schedule, contact the Analy music program office at 824-2337, or check the Analy Band Wagon website.