VMI to Host Military School Band & Choir Festival

Virginia Military Institute will host the 46th Military School Band & Choir Festival, Friday, Feb. 16, through Sunday, Feb. 18.

The festival will feature a concert band and a festival choir composed of military high school and college cadets, and a clinic for military high school and college drum majors. Col. John A. Brodie, music director at VMI, will serve as the conductor of the festival concert band.

The public is invited to attend the finale of the festival, a full member concert on Sunday afternoon at 2 in Gillis Theater in Marshall Hall.

The Military School Band and Choir Festival was founded in 1968 by Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham as the Virginia Military School League Band Workshop. Under the leadership of Ronald L. Horton, then Bandmaster at Hargrave Military Academy and later at Fork Union Military Academy, it was reorganized in 1977, after several years of dormancy, into the Southeastern Military School Band Festival. An expansion to include military schools outside the region was completed, and in 1984 the festival became known as the Military School Band Festival. Growing from its roots as a festival attended only by bandsmen from military schools in Virginia, the Military School Band & Choir Festival has grown into a national event, drawing more than 100 students from schools and colleges from across the United States.