High school band festival comes to ETSU this weekend

The 34th annual East Tennessee State University High School Honor Bands Festival will be hosted this Friday and Saturday, featuring two guest conductors who are alumni of the ETSU Bands program. This two-day event is an educational outreach, service and recruiting event for the ETSU Bands program and for high school bands from throughout East and Middle Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina. Each year, between 150-200 high school band members attend. On Friday morning, students will audition for band placement and section seating with the applied studio faculty of the ETSU Department of Music. Once auditions are finished, instrumental master classes will be taught by the applied music faculty. Students will then be assigned to bands, and rehearsals will begin with the guest conductors. Rehearsals will resume Saturday morning, and following lunch and a short rehearsal, an ending concert, which is open to students’ families and the general public, will be held at 3 p.m. in the D.P. Culp University Center Ballroom. Guest conductors this year are Trey Harris and Jeffrey Paul Kleiber. Harris, a native of Florida, was raised in Elizabethton. He graduated in 1995 with a bachelor of arts degree in music education from ETSU, where he was a member of the Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Trumpet Ensemble, Faculty Brass Quintet, Men’s Choir, Mixed Chorale and the 7BucsWorth Men’s Ensemble. After graduation, Harris began his career as assistant director of bands at Pulaski County High School, serving as director of the concert and marching bands and the Winter Guard. In 1996, he began his tenure with the Bassett High School Band program. Under Harris’ leadership, the Bassett program has grown from 75 students to over 160 and has consistently received superior ratings and awards at the local, regional, state and national levels. The BHS Marching Band has been named the USBands Group 5 Open State Champion for the last six years; it has also finished in the top five in the nation in Group 5 Open Class at the USBands National Championships, finishing in second place three separate times. Harris has served as a clinician, judge, conductor and marching band visual designer across the country, and has been a staff member with the All-American Marching Band and Wind Track director for the Western Carolina University Summer Symposium. He resides in Bassett with his wife, Sheri, and their two daughters. Kleiber is director of bands at Reedy Creek Middle School in Cary, N.C. He also serves the school as chair of the fine arts and electives departments,as co-chair of the Leadership Committee and as a mentor teacher. Since attaining his position in 2010, the RCMS band program has grown from 150 students to over 300. He has been nominated for Teacher of the Year and Western Wake County (N.C.) Honorary Teacher. Kleiber was previously director of bands at Carroll County High School in Hillsville, Va., after graduating cum laude from ETSU in 2007 with a degree in instrumental music education. During his time at CCHS, the band grew from 55 to 99 members, and the program received superior ratings in both marching and concert band, performed in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Washington, D.C., and was awarded Grand Champion Concert Band at the Busch Gardens “Music in the Parks.” Kleiber received his master of music degree in music education from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 2012 and is sought after as a clinician and adjudicator for concert and marching band programs. For more information or special assistance for those with disabilities, call the ETSU Department of Music at 423-439- 4276, or contact Dr. Christian Zembower, ETSU director of bands, at 423-439-4296 or zembower@etsu.edu.