Huntley High School’s music programs recently garnered a number of individual and program-wide honors.
ILMEA District Honors
Five band students and one choir student made Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) District 9 Honor Ensembles. This number is the highest from Huntley in recent memory. The are just nine ILMEA districts in the state, meaning a large number students from multiple school districts audition for each district ensemble.
“There were 2,400 auditions heard among choir, band, and orchestra,” said HHS music band director Philip Carter. “To make district is a big honor, and if the students do well enough they may qualify for state.”
The recognized students are:
- Brianne Steif – Flute
- Matthew Rodriguez – Clarinet
- Clarissa Mason – Clarinet
- Jordan McGuire – Bass Clarinet
- Rebekah Green – French Horn
- Steele Dehmlow – Chorus
These students will be performing at the District 9 concert on Saturday, November 19, at Lake Park High School in Roselle. For more information, visit the ILMEA website.
Disney Parade of Bands
On October 25, Gary Smith, Associate Director of Bands Emeritus at the University of Illinois, Urbana – Champaign, visited HHS to work with both concert bands and the marching band in preparation for the band’s performance in the Disney Thanksgiving Parade of Bands in November.
The Parade of Bands performance will happen at the Epcot Center on Thanksgiving morning and will be live streamed. The band will rehears with Smith both the day and morning of before the park opens. The band will perform alongside professional brass quintet, the Boston Brass. The band leaves for Orlando Tuesday, Nov. 22 and gets back the 27.
State of Illinois Invitational Marching Band Championships
The Red Raiders also won Best Visual Performance in Class 6A at the State of Illinois Invitational Marching Band Championships at Illinois State University. That competition pitted Huntley against some of the best marching bands in the state of Illinois. Watch video of their winning performance below:
