The 2025 Region 10 Band Festival will be held on Wednesday, March 26 and Thursday, March 27 at the Bridgeport High School Gym and the Bridgeport Middle School Gym.

A total of 2,169 musicians will participate, representing 18 high school and 28 middle school performing groups.

The five counties representing Region 10 are Monongalia, Marion, Preston, Taylor and Harrison. Braxton County High School from Region 8 will be represented as a guest.

Michael Ford has been the acting Regional Festival Director for the past 39 years.  He is retired from the Harrison County Board of Education where he served as a Band Director, Orchestra Director and Choral Instructor for a period of 35 years, Mr. Ford is now the Music Education Representative for Bandland of Clarksburg. Mr. Ford is also employed by the Harrison County Board of Education as a Substitute Teacher.

The “Region 10, Spring Festival for Performance Evaluation and Assessment” – commonly known as the Region 10 Band Festival – is one of 10 Regional Band Festivals throughout the State of West Virginia, which are held each year and sponsored by the Secondary Schools Activities Commission in conjunction with the West Virginia Bandmasters Association. This year, as it has been for more than a half century, the festival will be hosted in conjunction with the Harrison County School’s Board of Education.

Bridgeport High School will host primarily the High School Bands and Bridgeport Middle School will host the Middle School Bands that will be in attendance from the Region 10 Member Schools. There will be 46 Region 10 member groups performing this year from Monongalia, Marion, Harrison, Preston and Taylor Counties, which are the counties that comprise Region 10.

The public is not only welcome, but encouraged to watch the bands perform for their rating. Performances will be held 8:30 a.m. through 3 p.m. on March 26 and 27.

Each band attending the festival is required to perform two musical selections from the West Virginia Band Masters Graded Music List, whereas they will be evaluated on the finer aspects of musical performance by 3 very qualified adjudicators. Each band will receive a rating of: I =Superior, II= Excellent, III= Good, IV= Fair (Showing Obvious Weakness) or V= Poor (Performance which reveals much room for improvement.  A band may opt-out of a rating in lieu of “Comments Only”.

The Graded Music List is comprised of a large selection of musical selections graded from Grade level 1 (easiest to perform) to grade level 6 (most difficult to perform). The list is updated yearly by the Graded Music List Committee headed up by Mr. Bobby Jenks.

By having their band perform at the festival, each participating band director the opportunity to see how well his or her band is performing the basic elements of musical performance.

Serving as adjudicators for the 2025 Region 10 Band Festival are Dr. David Bess, a retired Associate Professor of Music Education at West Virginia University; Mr. John Christian, former Bridgeport High School band director; Mr. John Hendricks, Professor Emeritus in the School of Music at WVU; Mr. Mark Hardman, former director of band/choir/music education/music theory at Philip Barbour High School, Alderson Broaddus College and George Washington High School; Dr. Lloyd Bone, Chair of Department of Fine Arts and Associate Professor of Music at Glenville State University; and Mr. Joseph Bowen, former band director at various West Virginia high and middle schools.

See a schedule of performances HERE.

Editor’s Note: Photos are courtesy of BHS Band Director Garrett Friend.