June 4, 2018 - The Tenaha High School Band's “Coast Guards March” recording placed 2nd at the region level and advanced to Area for the third time in four years (top two recordings advance). The band’s “Fireball” and “Cumberland Cross” recordings came in 4th and 5th respectively; however, only the top three recordings advance in this category.
In its inaugural attempt at this contest, the 7th grade band’s “Union March” recording placed 2nd in the middle school march category at Region OPS. Additionally, the 7th grade band’s “Sakura” and “Nottingham Castle” recordings were ranked 1st and 2nd respectively at region. All three 7th grade recordings will advance to area for the first time in history! Congrats to both bands, and we wish them the best of luck at the next level of competition!
(Author’s note about the contest) The Outstanding Performance Series (OPS) competition is a contest sponsored by the Association of Small School Bands (ATSSB) where you can submit one march recording and up to two concert recordings per band. A panel of judges listens to recordings, and determines which recordings sound the best of all the ones submitted in each category. The judges rank the bands based solely on which recording is the most aesthetically pleasing to listen to. In other words, the judges do not look at sheet music when they are judging for this contest like they do at UIL Concert & Sight Reading; rather they just decide which band sounds the best. All the recordings are ranked individually, which means that even different pieces from the same band are competing against one another.
