NCBA Update

Christy Latham

Outgoing Northern California Band Association Representative

NCBA Update

Northern California Band Association continues to fulfill its mission by providing quality adjudication that supports education.

NCBA was established in 1990 by music directors to provide an organization that could judge diverse marching band competitions that were previously run by independent organizations. The organization has grown to include honor bands, winter guard and percussion, solo drum majors and large ensemble festivals.

NCBA provides a slate of judges for competitions, that are routinely trained to improve and sustain their skills, competitions in Northern/Central California and Northern Nevada with the goal to provide consistency in adjudication at each competition. These competitions include field competitions, parade reviews, concert band, jazz band, winter guard, percussion, and solo drum major competitions.

Every January NCBA hosts a High School and Junior High school honor band. 2023 will be the third year of our honor Jazz Band. These are hosted and performed at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton in the Atherton Auditorium. 2022 Honor Band Conductors are: High School Honor Band -Dr. John Zarco - University of Texas at San Antonio, Junior High School Honor Band - Louise Jacob , Armijo HS, Stockton, Jazz Band Director -Aaron Lington, San Jose State University.

We provided three ratings festivals for concert and jazz bands. Each festival offers a full day of concert and jazz festivals. The locations are: Pittsburgh HS, Pittsburgh, CA, Inderkum HS, Sacramento, Ca, Del Mar HS, Campbell, CA

NCBA offers Winter Percussion and Guard competitions. 15 Winter events in Guard, Percussion and Solo Drum Majors. The organization has adopted a WGI model and has a multi year plan to transition to this system. All Winter judges have completed the training programs.