For Immediate Release

Friday, Oct. 19, 2018

Media Contact: Benjamin Paulin
Phone: 781-428-3299
Email: ben@jgpr.net

King Philip High Hosts Annual Marching Band Competition

WRENTHAM — Superintendent Paul Zinni is pleased to announce that the King Philip Regional High School Music Department hosted a successful marching band competition earlier this month, with more than a dozen high school bands from four states participating.

The King Philip Fall Classic Marching Band Competition was held on Oct. 6 on the KP High School football field. The annual event draws some of the best regional high school marching bands in the state, as well as some bands from out of state.

“This year’s competition was fantastic and featured a lot of talented bands and unique performances,” said KP High School Band Director Michael Keough. “KP has been hosting this competition for over 20 years and each year the performances get better and better.”

The schools that participated in the competition were:

• Oliver Ames High School
• Somerset Berkley Regional High School
• Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School
• Salem High School
• Stoughton High School
• Bishop Feehan High School
• Blackstone-Millville High School
• Dartmouth High School
• Mansfield High School
• Cranston High School East (Rhode Island)
• Robert E. Fitch High School (Groton, Connecticut)
• North Penn High School (Lansdale, Pennsylvania)

The bands and their color guards were judged by USBands judges who evaluated them based on their visual performances, how well they moved as a group, their musical performances and their overall performances and routines within their chosen themes.

The bands were separated into divisions based on their size and each band had about eight minutes to complete their performance.

The division winners were:

• Div. I – Cranston High School East
• Div. II – Oliver Ames High School
• Div. III – Robert E. Fitch High School
• Div. IV – Blackstone-Millville High School
• Div. V – Dartmouth High School

As the host, the King Philip Marching Band did not compete in the adjudicated performance portion of the event. But rather, the KP band put on an exhibition performance with the theme “All Aboard.”

“The exhibition program hearkened back to an era when travelling by train was something new and novel,” Keough said. “Our band played ‘Ghost Train’ by Eric Whitacre, ‘Take the A Train’ by Duke Ellington and a song from the musical ‘Ragtime.'”

Nearly 2,000 people came to KP to enjoy the performances.

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