Town Talk: A conversation with Ed Richards and Michael DeMato – 45th Annual Military School Band & Choir Festival at R-MA

In this Town Talk, our publisher Mike McCool speaks with Ed Richards and Michael DeMato about the 45th Annual Military School Band & Choir Festival at R-MA beginning next week.

After being canceled the past two years due to the pandemic, Randolph-Macon Academy will once again host the 45^th Military School Band and Choir Festival from February 24th to 26th, 2023.

Events open to the public

• Saturday, Feb. 25, 7:00 pm, Melton Gymnasium- Drum Major Competition
• Sunday, Feb. 26, 2:00 pm, Melton Gymnasium – 45^th Military School Band and Choir Festival Concert
• Tuesday, Feb. 28, 7:30 pm – Combined Concert American Legion Community Band & Clarke County Community Band

The festival will feature a concert band and a festival choir composed of military high school and college cadets and a clinic for military high school and college drum majors. Colonel John A. Brodie, Director of Music at Virginia Military Institute, will serve as the conductor of the Festival Concert Band.  The Festival Choir will be conducted by Stephen Cramer, who is retired from the US Army Chorus, a former Broadway Star, and who currently teaches at the University of Wyoming.  MUC James Anderson, the new primary drum major of the US Navy Band, will instruct the drum major clinic.

The Military School Band and Choir Festival was founded in 1968 by Hargrave Military Academy, Chatham, Virginia, as the Virginia Military School League Band Workshop.  Under the leadership of Ronald L. Horton, then Bandmaster at Hargrave Military Academy and later at Fork Union Military Academy, it was reorganized in 1977, after several years of dormancy, into the Southeastern Military School Band Festival.  An expansion to include military schools outside of the region was completed, and in 1984 the festival became known as the Military School Band Festival (MSBF).

Growing from its roots as a festival attended only by bandsmen from the military schools in Virginia, The Military School Band & Choir Festival has grown into a national event, drawing schools and colleges from across the United States. This year’s festival roster includes more than 140 cadets and bandmasters, choir directors, and chaperons from eight military academies.  This year’s festival participants are from schools in California, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Missouri, Connecticut, and Virginia.

Military School Band & Choir Festival Participating Schools

• Army & Navy Academy, Carlsbad, CA
• Hargrave Military Academy, Chatham, VA
• Fork Union Military Academy, Fork Union, VA
• Missouri Military Academy, Mexico, MO
• New Mexico Military Institute, Roswell, NM
• Randolph-Macon Academy, Front Royal, VA
• Saint John’s Northwestern Academies, Delafield, WI
• U. S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, CT
• Valley Forge Military Academy and College, Wayne PA
• Virginia Military Institute, Lexington VA

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Here is the links to the 44th Annual Military School Band & Choir Festival held at R-MA in February 2020.

Military schools from around nation gather at Randolph-Macon Academy for Drum Major Competition

Watch: 44th Military School Band & Festival Concert