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NCBCDA Update
News from the Northstate!!
For those of you who are unfamiliar, the Northern California Band and Choir Directors Association (NorCal for short ) encompasses all the territory from highways 50 and 80 all the way north to the Oregon border. We provide an opportunity for students from many rural and small schools from northern communities to experience high quality honor ensembles. What makes our honor groups unique is that we rotate between 3 of the largest Universities in the Northstate. CSU Chico, CSU Sonoma and CSU Cal Poly Humboldt.
February 2023 brought the NorCal Honor weekend back to Sonoma State for our first in-person event in 2 years. Like most school groups, we were laid low by COVID - going virtual in 2021 and bypassing 2022 altogether.
This year we jumped back into the game at Sonoma State and had the hometown team making things run smoothly. Dr. Andy Collinsworth and Dr. Jenny Bent lead the Concert Band and Concert Choir respectively. Both ensembles were larger than they had been in MANY yearsa deliberate way to get NorCal back into the minds of band directors and students in a big way. Our newest ensembles were back as well, honor Jazz Band lead by Dave Eshelman and the honor Jazz Choir, directed by Kerry Marsh. All the parts came together smoothly for an excellent concert in the gorgeous Weill Hall.
Next year, NorCal heads north to Arcata where Humboldt State University, which recently joined the ranks of Cal-Poly institutions, will play host again. Much like everyone else, the shift of CASMEC to earlier weekends these next few years will affect NorCal’s dates. For 2024, NorCal will be held January 17-20th at Cal Poly Humboldt. There have been some changes in the ranks of those in charge of NCBCDA due to career redirections (all of them for the better).
Daniel Sedewick of Del Norte High School has stepped in as President as our former president, Ryan Heimlich moved on to Butte Community College. Matthew Bringedahl will fill Dan’s president-elect-shaped shoes. Kris Harper, Bobby Rodgers and Casson Scowcroft have also stepped away to explore different career options. We welcome Tom Slabaugh, Abigail West, Chrissy Sleigh and Audrey McCombs to the board to fill various positions.
We are very excited by the changes coming to CBDA, CASMEC and our own organization in the next few years. Finally, please don’t worry- NCBCDA will not be adding any more letters to our Acronym. At least not THIS year.
