Which MCPS school has best symphonic and marching band program?

[Anonymous]

We are looking for an MCPS high school with a strong symphonic and marching band. I am disappointed with DCPS. Our MS (Deal) only offers band as an extra curricular. I attended Quince Orchard in the late 90's, which had a stellar music program. Which MCPS High Schools should I look at today?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for an MCPS high school with a strong symphonic and marching band. I am disappointed with DCPS. Our MS (Deal) only offers band as an extra curricular. I attended Quince Orchard in the late 90's, which had a stellar music program. Which MCPS High Schools should I look at today?

The HS I’ve seen compete with Marching Bands are:

Wootten
Clarksburg
Blair
QO
Magruder
Rockville

[Anonymous]

I have heard several different MCPS marching bands and they all suck, at least compared to the bands I heard growing up in the rural south. They are shockingly bad. I would not move to Maryland just so your kid can play for an MCPS marching band!

[Anonymous]

Marching band parent - they all suck. They are very basic and many don't do competitions. Some are better than others but it also depends on the instrument. You basically go to the school assigned in less you are down county and have some choice if you can lottery in. There are private marching bands but non-close. And, private orchestra's.

Towson has a great marching band camp.

[Anonymous]

Op here. Thanks for the honesty! What about strong symphonic band? Do any of the MCPS high schools seem to have a stronger program than another?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the honesty! What about strong symphonic band? Do any of the MCPS high schools seem to have a stronger program than another?

Einstein has a great symphonic band in addition to the string and wind ensembles. And—as the music director loves to remind everyone!—AEHS is the only high school in MCPS with two curricular jazz ensembles (the main Jazz Ensemble, and a Jazz Lab for students who are proficient on their instruments but have little to no exposure to playing jazz).

They also have a bunch of extracurricular music opportunities like marching band, pep band, drum line, a small jazz combo, pit orchestra for the spring musical.

The music director is always up for supporting pretty much anything the kids want to put together. In fact, the he was the MCPS Teacher of the Year last year. His energy and enthusiasm are unparalleled. And there's a very active parent group that supports all the performing arts at Einstein.

Most kids at Einstein don't have endless financial and family resources for their individual outside lessons and other opportunities, so you won't necessarily see as many students on the All-County and All-State band lists. But the music program itself does amazing things with the resources at hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the honesty! What about strong symphonic band? Do any of the MCPS high schools seem to have a stronger program than another?

Einstein has a great symphonic band in addition to the string and wind ensembles. And—as the music director loves to remind everyone!—AEHS is the only high school in MCPS with two curricular jazz ensembles (the main Jazz Ensemble, and a Jazz Lab for students who are proficient on their instruments but have little to no exposure to playing jazz).

They also have a bunch of extracurricular music opportunities like marching band, pep band, drum line, a small jazz combo, pit orchestra for the spring musical.

The music director is always up for supporting pretty much anything the kids want to put together. In fact, the he was the MCPS Teacher of the Year last year. His energy and enthusiasm are unparalleled. And there's a very active parent group that supports all the performing arts at Einstein.

Most kids at Einstein don't have endless financial and family resources for their individual outside lessons and other opportunities, so you won't necessarily see as many students on the All-County and All-State band lists. But the music program itself does amazing things with the resources at hand.

I heard the Einstein marching band play in a parade once. They were not good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the honesty! What about strong symphonic band? Do any of the MCPS high schools seem to have a stronger program than another?

Einstein has a great symphonic band in addition to the string and wind ensembles. And—as the music director loves to remind everyone!—AEHS is the only high school in MCPS with two curricular jazz ensembles (the main Jazz Ensemble, and a Jazz Lab for students who are proficient on their instruments but have little to no exposure to playing jazz).

They also have a bunch of extracurricular music opportunities like marching band, pep band, drum line, a small jazz combo, pit orchestra for the spring musical.

The music director is always up for supporting pretty much anything the kids want to put together. In fact, the he was the MCPS Teacher of the Year last year. His energy and enthusiasm are unparalleled. And there's a very active parent group that supports all the performing arts at Einstein.

Most kids at Einstein don't have endless financial and family resources for their individual outside lessons and other opportunities, so you won't necessarily see as many students on the All-County and All-State band lists. But the music program itself does amazing things with the resources at hand.

Sorry—that should be the Montgomery County Council of PTAs Teacher of the Year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the honesty! What about strong symphonic band? Do any of the MCPS high schools seem to have a stronger program than another?

Einstein has a great symphonic band in addition to the string and wind ensembles. And—as the music director loves to remind everyone!—AEHS is the only high school in MCPS with two curricular jazz ensembles (the main Jazz Ensemble, and a Jazz Lab for students who are proficient on their instruments but have little to no exposure to playing jazz).

They also have a bunch of extracurricular music opportunities like marching band, pep band, drum line, a small jazz combo, pit orchestra for the spring musical.

The music director is always up for supporting pretty much anything the kids want to put together. In fact, the he was the MCPS Teacher of the Year last year. His energy and enthusiasm are unparalleled. And there's a very active parent group that supports all the performing arts at Einstein.

Most kids at Einstein don't have endless financial and family resources for their individual outside lessons and other opportunities, so you won't necessarily see as many students on the All-County and All-State band lists. But the music program itself does amazing things with the resources at hand.

I heard the Einstein marching band play in a parade once. They were not good.

Yeah, it's just an after-school thing that happens for a couple of months. It's tough to find time to rehearse with everything else going on.

[Anonymous]

Whitman symphonic used to be amazing. Not sure about now though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the honesty! What about strong symphonic band? Do any of the MCPS high schools seem to have a stronger program than another?

Einstein has a great symphonic band in addition to the string and wind ensembles. And—as the music director loves to remind everyone!—AEHS is the only high school in MCPS with two curricular jazz ensembles (the main Jazz Ensemble, and a Jazz Lab for students who are proficient on their instruments but have little to no exposure to playing jazz).

They also have a bunch of extracurricular music opportunities like marching band, pep band, drum line, a small jazz combo, pit orchestra for the spring musical.

The music director is always up for supporting pretty much anything the kids want to put together. In fact, the he was the MCPS Teacher of the Year last year. His energy and enthusiasm are unparalleled. And there's a very active parent group that supports all the performing arts at Einstein.

Most kids at Einstein don't have endless financial and family resources for their individual outside lessons and other opportunities, so you won't necessarily see as many students on the All-County and All-State band lists. But the music program itself does amazing things with the resources at hand.

I heard the Einstein marching band play in a parade once. They were not good.

Einstein hosted the countywide marching band showcase this year, and the only bands that may have sounded better than them were Blake and Clarksburg. None of the Bethesda and Potomac schools have marching bands so don’t look there.

[Anonymous]

Look at the number of full time instrumental music teachers a HS has. The ones with at least 2 FT instrumental teachers tend to have more offerings.

[Anonymous]

Clarksburg has a Symphonic band, Symphonic Orchestra, Concert band and Concert Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble and Marching Band. Their Band Director was a recent WaPO Teacher of the a year finalist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are looking for an MCPS high school with a strong symphonic and marching band. I am disappointed with DCPS. Our MS (Deal) only offers band as an extra curricular. I attended Quince Orchard in the late 90's, which had a stellar music program. Which MCPS High Schools should I look at today?

The HS I’ve seen compete with Marching Bands are:

Wootten
Clarksburg
Blair
QO
Magruder
Rockville

Add Churchill to this list. Their conductor is the MCYO Phil conductor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks for the honesty! What about strong symphonic band? Do any of the MCPS high schools seem to have a stronger program than another?

Einstein has a great symphonic band in addition to the string and wind ensembles. And—as the music director loves to remind everyone!—AEHS is the only high school in MCPS with two curricular jazz ensembles (the main Jazz Ensemble, and a Jazz Lab for students who are proficient on their instruments but have little to no exposure to playing jazz).

They also have a bunch of extracurricular music opportunities like marching band, pep band, drum line, a small jazz combo, pit orchestra for the spring musical.

The music director is always up for supporting pretty much anything the kids want to put together. In fact, the he was the MCPS Teacher of the Year last year. His energy and enthusiasm are unparalleled. And there's a very active parent group that supports all the performing arts at Einstein.

Most kids at Einstein don't have endless financial and family resources for their individual outside lessons and other opportunities, so you won't necessarily see as many students on the All-County and All-State band lists. But the music program itself does amazing things with the resources at hand.

Its ok, many of the families DO have the resources who do band, they just choose not to do outside things.