For the second year in a row, the Avon Lake High School marching band will compete in the Ohio Music Education Association state finals.
The event will take place Oct. 28 at Hilliard Bradley High School, 2800 Walker Road in Hilliard.
The state finals will occur over multiple weeks in October and November.
Josh Brunger, director of bands for Avon Lake High, said getting to the finals involves a qualification process spanning a seven-week season.
The preliminary band competition often creates a family-like atmosphere, Brunger said.
“This past week we were in Copley, and there were two high school groups that had not yet earned that superior rating to go to states,” he said. “Everybody was cheering them on, because we’re all kind of in the same boat.
“We all want the best for each other.”
The performances are graded on a variety of factors, in both the audio and visual realms, Brunger said.
The whole show must tell a coherent story for the judges to consider allowing a band to compete in the state finals, he said
“(You’re being graded on) music, how it sounds, how it sounds with each other, if it’s entertaining in how they’re playing it,” Brunger said. “Along with their marching, the shapes have to look like shapes.
“If it’s going to be a circle, it should obviously look like a circle; is it entertaining and telling a story?”
To create that coherent, show-length narrative, the band has to work nearly all year long.
Brunger said that ideas for the upcoming year’s show often come six to eight months before the band even begins practicing.
“We start the ideas for the show in December,” he said. “We don’t actually get to work with it with the kids until August.
“So, there’s a lot of planning involved ahead of time, and then also, you’ve got to teach the kids to do all the basic marching and things like that.”
Brunger explained that getting into the finals is no small feat.
Avon Lake High’s multiple appearances over the past decade is a massive feather in the cap of the music program, he said.
“The fact that we’re able to go again, because we went last year as well, is a really big deal,” Brunger said. “This is it.
“We like to joke around and keep things light, and that definitely helps. But all the work (still) goes into it.”
Brunger thanked his directorial staff for helping the band get to this point once again.
The Ohio Music Education Association state marching band finals will take place Oct. 28, Oct. 29, Nov. 4, and Nov. 5.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and school-age children, and free for children younger than 5.