Ashland Co. Middle School Instrumentalists Recognized

In Celebration of Music in Our Schools Month, Ashland University Department of Music will host the annual Ashland County Middle School Honors Band on Sunday, March 19 at 4:00 p.m. in Hugo Young Theatre. The Ashland University Concert Band will be the featured guest ensemble conducted by Gary Ciulla, Ashland University Director of Bands. Lori Ciulla, former director of bands at Copley-Fairlawn Middle School, will conduct the middle school honors band.

Consisting of 75 members, the Ashland County Middle School Honors Band includes seventh and eighth grade students from Ashland, Crestview, Hillsdale, Loudonville-Perrysville and Mapleton Schools.  Members of the Ashland County Band Directors Association meet with Gary Ciulla and Ashland's Martin Kral, this year’s chairman, to plan the program. The committee of band directors selects the honors band members based on merit and instrumentation needs of the band. Students meet at Ashland University on Thursday, March 16 and Sunday, March 19 to rehearse and present this program with music ranging from classical selections to traditional marches.

The 65-member Ashland University Concert Band will open the concert with a cameo program of wonderful but unusual music chosen especially to highlight the day including Keith Brion's arrangement of John Philip Sousa's The Pathfinder of Panama, Prelude of Band by Claude T. Smith, The Ascension by Robert W. Smith, and Movement IV of Divertimento for Winds and Percussion by Roger Cichy. 

The combination of these two bands make for a rewarding, exciting and satisfying musical experience for both the performers and the audience. Admission is free and open to the public.