Education through musical involvement.
It is our firm belief that controlled competition can be a positive educational tool wherein the process of music education can greatly enhance general education and life skills.
About Cavalcade of Bands
The Cavalcade of Bands is a nonprofit 501c3 organization, founded in 1958, composed of member schools coming together to compete on the interscholastic level. It is the continuing philosophy of Cavalcade to provide students with a broad array of educational opportunities for the development of abilities in music and the performing arts. Through competitive and noncompetitive evaluation, the primary goal is to promote the ongoing development and mastery of technical and artistic skills reflecting contemporary educational principles.
While traditionally a Southeastern Pennsylvania organization, we have grown within the Mid-Atlantic region to include Northern and Central Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. On average, our membership consists of 100 K-12 school districts within these geographic boundaries.
COB’s efforts are focused on providing resources to these schools through their school music programs, directors, and instructors. The intent is that these resources benefit the students of those programs on the field and on the stage. At our sanctioned events, the primary audience is the parents of said performing students, neighbors, community members, and fans of the performing arts.
On average from September through April we host about fifty marching, jazz and indoor events. These all conclude with championship competitions at the end of each season. Marching band events draw the most spectators, with thousands of patrons helping to support our students, their local shows, our championship events and overall music education.
Marching Band
Elevating talent, inspiring audiences
On weekends from September through early November, marching bands perform at local football stadiums in competitive events. In addition to receiving verbal judged commentary numeric scores, each school has the opportunity to perform to hundreds of thousands spectators.
There are five competitive performance groupings based on the total number of members. Within each division, there are three classes based on the ability level of the group. Our Open groups are at the highest competitive level and will be seen attending national events such as BOA and WGI regionals. Our A class groups are focused on growing their programs and training the performers on the field for eventual advancement to the open class. We also offer a Freedom class for bands that are not competitive in the traditional nature, but are still looking for feedback and commentary from the adjudicator panel.
Over the course of the championship day this fall, we will have 75 groups, 7,000 spectators, 4,000 performers, and 900 support staff active throughout the day.
Jazz
Building artistry through performance
From mid February through April, high school jazz bands perform in a festival type settings with feedback given by three jazz educators. Verbal commentary and ratings are presented instead of scores. A similar class structure to marching band is in place, with groups divided into both Open and A based on the repertoire and skillset of their students.
In addition, best soloist and best section awards are provided at each festival. Show hosts also have options to provide additional opportunities at their shows such as guest soloists and clinicians from within the judging roster.
History
In 1958, several directors, administrators and parents recognized high school marching bands in the area needed a competitive atmosphere. Primarily to present and showcase their growing band programs. From these meetings, the Cavalcade of Bands was born. Their main goal was to promote various programs of musical organizations and to help develop new cultural activities in and for the music community. One year later, on Tuesday, October 27th, 1959, the Boyertown Area High School held the very first Cavalcade of Bands contest with seven local high school participating. Through a primitive judging system, a first and second place winner was selected. Because there were no similar competitions, a judging model based on one used for drum and bugle corps competitions of the day was adopted. However, very quickly the Mid Atlantic Judges Association where hired to judge Cavalcade contests. At the time, they were very active in developing professional judging techniques related specifically
to high schools programs.
A negative tick system, common for the day, was used up until 1969. From this point through 2002, continual sheet changes, enhancements and revisions were incorporated to keep current with the ever growing trends of our activity. This system was again revised for the 2011 marching band season with totally new sheets, caption criteria and other judging tools needed to succeed in the current marching activity. From 1959 through 1969, there was one marching championship division (Yankee) each year. In 1970 this expanded to a second division (American) and in 1974 this expanded yet again to three divisions (Independence). From 1978 through 1996 four divisions were now present at championships with the fourth (Liberty) added in 1978. Starting in 2004, division were expanded again to include both an A and Open class format at championships, for each division, thus providing even more opportunity for groups to succeed. While our championships have been held at many venues, our primary home is Hershey Park Stadium in Hershey, PA, on the second weekend in November each year. In 1971, the Cavalcade Indoor division was formed. Seeing the need to continue year round marching instruction, training and program growth, indoor color guard, twirler and drill team competitions were held throughout the winter months. As the indoor percussion trend grew, this was added to the CI structure several years later. This continues today with both marching and concert percussion ensembles. Today, our indoor division follows the guidelines of Winter Guard International (WGI). This premiere national organization helps us keep our structure, systems and judging approach current which has helped us continue to grow our local indoor base. We conclude each year with a championship contest in early April.
A non-competitive jazz band division was established in 1988. Instead of competitive scores, the goal of this arena is to promote great jazz performances and to allow constant musical growth throughout the winter. At each show, three professional jazz musicians/teachers critique each band with constructive information. They also select best soloist awards. This division of Cavalcade has grown to be one of the strongest and most well respected jazz associations in our region and on the East Coast. We conclude
each year with four championship performances in mid-April.
Throughout the 80’s, the Cavalcade Hall of Fame was created recognizing many talented and dedicated individuals for their dedication to our association. In 1995, the Director of the Year was created, giving all directors the opportunity to recognize their peers. In 2000, an annual scholarship was established for students planning on continuing in music education at West Chester University.
In 2008 we implemented digital recorder technology to be one of the first marching band associations in our region to do so. Since then, we continue to use this for both our jazz and indoor division as well. In 2012, we implemented a new tabulation and digital file program called Competition Suite™, allow directors, staff and judges to access judge’s commentary electronically.
Membership in the Cavalcade of Bands continues to attract schools from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. With currently well over a hundred actively participating schools and over eighty contests or performing opportunities a year, we are poised for continual membership growth, as we always strive to service our school scholastic core customers.
Our Story
