Spent last night at my daughter's high school marching band competition
in Herndon, VA.  Parental pride wins out over modesty when I say that her
band won overall, despite being in the next-to-largest size category.  My
daughter's band played selections from A Young Person's Guide.  Not only
the music was good, but the marching was too.  I'm sure they won style
points when different sections of the band marched polyrhythmically.  The
band director said that when he proposed this last spring, his assistants
told him he must be crazy.  BTW, this is the same director who last year
put his symphonic band through a rousing version of the finale from a
symphony by Kalinnikov.  Britten and Kalinnikov -- not your usual high
school fare!

My choice for runnerup in the repertoire category went to the marching
band that played a number of opera arias.  What a treat it was to hear
Ride, Pagliacco played by over 100 horns of various types.

Mitch Friedfeld