Kettering Again One of the Nation's Best Communities for Music Education!

For the 6th consecutive year the Kettering City Schools have been named one of the "Best Communities for Music Education" by the NAMM Foundation.   The NAMM survey compares school districts across the country on dozens of criteria including music programming, funding, staffing, and overall support from the school district and community.  Congratulations to all student musicians, teachers, staff, parents, boosters, and the entire Kettering Community!

You can find more information about the award on the NAMM Foundation website including the complete list of "Best Communities!"

https://www.nammfoundation.org/articles/best-communities-music-education

Fairmont Winter Guard - WGI Regional Champions!

The Fairmont Winter Guard is on a roll this season with their production called "Wallflower." After much local success in the Ohio MEPA circuit, the guard recently took their program on the road to Bowling Green Kentucky for the WGI Power Regional held at Diddle Arena at Western Kentucky University. 

The Guard finished first in the preliminary competition on Saturday among 32 winter guards from 9 states.   The guard returned to the arena on Sunday for the finals competition which featured the top 17 guards from the preliminary round.  The guard placed first again in the finals competition and were named "Regional Champions!"  Congratulions to the entire team of students and first year directors Kelsey Klawonn, and Melissa Lowry, and staff members: Sheldon Apo, Derek Vereen, Abbie West, Ashley Campbell, Tyler Edrington and Byron Valentine.

Scores from the KY Regional:

https://www.wgi.org/events/static_scores/2017/scores_Mid_South_Power_Regional_CG_Finals.php

With their score of 89.035 the Fairmont Winter Guard is ranked 4th nationally in the WGI Scholastic A Division.  Check out the National WGI Color Guard Rankings here:

http://wgi.org/events/ranking//2017/ranking_Scholastic_A.php

The Fairmont Winter Guard Posing Outside Diddle Arena Where They Were Named Regional Champions!

Members of the 2017 Winter Guard include: 

Julia Battigaglia, Isabelle Bower, Ashley Boyer, Katherine Braun, Hailey Brown, Julia Burns, Brigid Griffin, Megan Guyett, Addison Johns, Allison Jones, Haley Secrest, Abbey Siler, Karissa-Ann Taulbee, Olivia Thomas, Jillian Wyckoff, and special guest performer Ryan Boyer

Kettering Elementary Students Sing In District Honor Choir

The 2017 OMEA District 12 Elementary Honor Choir!

On March 12, 2017, twenty-one Kettering elementary students performed with the Ohio Music Education Association District Xll Honors Choir. The choir was made up of students across the Miami Valley who have demonstrated exceptional vocal ability. Students worked hard to learn the challenging choral music heard at their performance.

Sarah Smith, music teacher at JFK, said, “Honors Choir was a great opportunity to challenge some of my talented young singers. The students all enjoyed the experience and were sad when the concert was over! My fourth graders have already asked me how they can be involved again next year. This event really inspired my singers!”

Congratulations to some of our youngest Firebird musicians!

Pictured above JFK music teacher Sarah Smith and her JFK singers!

More Alumni Updates - Meet Marcia Neel - Nationally Known Music Ed. Consultant!

Go to the alumni tab at the top of the page to see all of our alumni profiles!

More Percussion News - Welcome Drew Brown!

Drew Brown will join the Fairmont Bands as asst. Percussion Director working with the Front Ensemble!  We are excited to have him as part of the new Percussion Team!

Drew Brown has been involved with the marching and percussive arts since 2001 as a performer, educator, and designer. He is currently an ensemble director at ConneXus Percussion where he also serves as both program coordinator and music coordinator.  

Since 2015, Drew has worked with the Colts Drum and Bugle Corps where he is a front ensemble technician and electronics coordinator.

Drew studied music education, composition, and percussion performance at Bowling Green State University, Wright State University, and the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music.

Drew is proud to be endorsed by Innovative Percussion and Evans Drumheads.

Live Streaming with the Cleveland Institute of Music

Forty Fairmont music students recently had the opportunity to use the school polycom system to live video stream with faculty and students at the Cleveland Institute of Music.   Fairmont's own FIC coordinator Jonelle Carroll helped the music department staff work with the technology that is still fairly new to the school.  Students participated in a program the CIM offers titled "So You Want to be a Music Major?"   

The program was highly interactive and allowed our music students to hear CIM students perform musical selections and answer questions about their music studies.   Thanks to Advanced Music Studies teacher Najwa Jones and everyone involved with giving our Music students this wonderful opportunity!

Welcome Tommy Roam - New Percussion Director

The Fairmont Band staff is proud to announce the appointment of Tommy Roam as our new Director of Percussion.   Mr. Roam comes to us from the Columbus area and will begin working with our percussion students this Spring,

Tommy Roam is a designer and educator for the marching arts. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio as an active designer for Resonant Music Design and JJ Visual Design. He is also an ensemble director at ConneXus Percussion, where he serves as a program coordinator and music designer. 

Since 2015, Tommy has served on the percussion instructional staff with the Bluecoats, who achieved their first DCI World Championship in 2016. He was a marching member of the corps from 2012 to 2014. He also serves on the instructional staff with Rhythm X, where he was a marching member from 2012 to 2015.

Tommy is endorsed by ProMark Drumsticks and Evans Drumheads by D'Addario.