NCBA Update

Hello from the Northern California Band Association! As we conclude with the festival and concert season, I hope everyone is coming to a strong end to their school year. As an organization, NCBA is continuously evolving its practices to better serve the students of Northern California. Our goal is to provide consistency in adjudication at every competition and festival that will support students and their directors.

This past January, we held a successful All Northern Honor Band weekend for high school and middle school students alongside our All Northern Honor Jazz Band. We want to extend our appreciation to the University of the Pacific and their amazing faculty for being such gracious hosts. To our conductors, Dr. John Zarco, Louise Jacob, and Dr. Aaron Lington, thank you for providing a weekend full of wonderful experiences for our students through music. Looking ahead to 2024, we are back at UOP the weekend of January 18th-21st with conductors Jack Stamp, Charlie Rodda, and Curtis Gaesser. We invite all members to send in auditions to participate in this great opportunity!

NCBA provides three festivals for middle and high school band, jazz, and orchestra ensembles in April and May. We want to thank our judges that spent the day adjudicating bands, and providing feedback for our students through the performance and sightreading portions. Inderkum, Pittsburg, and Del Mar high schools were tremendous hosts this spring, we look forward to returning to these sites in 2024! If you will be returning next year or are interested in a spring festival, please visit our website for registration information.

Lastly, NCBA provides our members with many performance opportunities in the fall and winter seasons. For the fall, many of our great events will be back with the addition of the Delta Band Review (Antioch, CA) on October 7th and the Liberty Band Review (Brentwood, CA) the following weekend. Following our 13 fall competitions, championships are hosted by Rodriguez and Lincoln High School (Stockton). NCBA will continue to host several winter percussion, guard, and solo drum major competitions culminating in a two day championship event at Rodriguez High School.

I want to thank every board member and director who volunteered their time for NCBA this past school year. We are committed to providing the best performance opportunities thanks to our hosts, judges, and parent volunteers. I invite our members to our June general session meetingon Saturday, June 3rd, at Inderkum High School. Our fall clinic and judges training will take place Saturday, August 26th, at Irvington High School. Band directors and instructors are encouraged to attend both events! We are thankful to be a part of CBDA and will continue to work together to provide the best opportunities for students in our state.