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UAB High School Honor Band Festival

The UAB Honor Bands for middle school students have become regarded as the best honor bands in the region. Students must receive a recommendation from their school band director to participate. This weekend festival is comprised of four high school honor bands that rehearse on a Thursday and Friday and perform a concert in the Alys Stephens Center on Saturday. The honor band festival takes place on the second weekend in December.

UAB High School Honor Band 2025

Event Dates: December 11-13, 2025

Deadline for Nominations: October 13, 2025

The 2025 UAB High School Honor Band will consist of four bands. Auditions for the band and chair placement will begin Thursday, December 11, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. All bands will rehearse Thursday through Saturday (December 11-13). The concert will be held Saturday, December 13 at 4:00 p.m. in the Jemison Concert Hall of the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center.

  • Eligibility

    Ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade students are eligible. Band directors should recommend students across all 4 grade levels, as care will be taken in the selection process to include all grade levels. Over 300 invitations will be extended to students for participation in the UAB High School Honor Band Weekend.

  • Division of Ensembles

    A pre-determined instrumentation for each ensemble will be used (please see the enclosed breakdown). Top players in each section will be placed in the Festival Band. All remaining players will be divided equally between the Green, Gold, and White Bands (ex. flute #1 – Green, flute #2 – Gold; clarinet #1 – Gold, clarinet #2 – Green; etc.).

  • Selection Process

    Priority for selection will be made as follows:

    • Band director's ranked order of recommendation
    • 2025 all-state students
    • Seniors with past experience at UAB Band events
    • ALL students with past experience at UAB band events
    • ALL students with positive band director recommendations

    Given these selection criteria, we will make every attempt to take all seniors who apply to the UAB High School Honor Band Weekend.Heavy emphasis will be placed upon each director’s ranking scale in making our preliminary selections – please give this careful thought. Obviously, any additional pertinent information will assist in the decision-making process. In order to have fair representation from all schools, we ask that you try to keep your number of nominees near 10% of your program’s total enrollment.

2025 UAB Honor Band Nominations

Please submit a nomination below to nominate your students for the Middle School Honor Band Festival. .

Submit a Nomination

Important Information

  • Upon notification of selection, there is an $85.00 non-refundable participation fee.
  • All participating students will receive a UAB Honor Band Medal as well as a UAB Honor Band T-shirt.
  • UAB Honor Band CDs, DVDs, and photos will be available for purchase at the festival.
  • Audition material will be:
    • 12 major scales and arpeggios (minimum one octave, extra credit given for two or three octaves) at a tempo of quarter note = 120 in eighth notes, preferred articulation is slurred ascending, and tongued descending
    • The technical exercise from the Alabama 2026 All-State requirements for the year. Access a list of the exercises
    • Sight-reading

*Pleae note: percussionists may audition on either snare, timpani, or keyboards, but more credit will be given to students who audition on two or more percussion instruments. The overall score will be a TOTAL of all three areas together. Students who demonstrate skills in all areas will receive more credit than students who only prepare one (or two) areas.

  • Auditions will be Thursday, December 11, 11:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
  • The first rehearsal will be held from 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.
  • Directors, please contact Dr. Sean Murray, Dr. Gene Fambrough, Dr. Caleb Owenby or Dr. Cara Morantz if you can help with student auditions on either weekend.

Conductors

  • Festival Band: Erin Bodnar, Director of Concert Bands, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
  • Green Band: Shelley Jagow, Director of Bands, Wright State University, Dayton, OH
  • Gold Band: David Thornton, Associate Director of Bands, and Director of the Spartan Marching Band, East Lansing, Michigan
  • White Band: Dr. Jason Ladd, Director of Bands, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana

Honor Band Tentative Instrumentation:

  • 8-10 Flute
  • 2-3 Oboe
  • 1 Eb Clarinet
  • 12-16 Bb Clarinet
  • 2-4 Bb Bass Clarinet
  • 1 Contra Clarinet
  • 4-6 Eb Alto Saxophone
  • 2 Tenor Saxophone
  • 1-2 Baritone Saxophone
  • 3-4 Bassoon
  • 10-12 Trumpet
  • 6 Horn
  • 6 Trombone
  • 1 Bass Trombone
  • 2-3 Euphonium
  • 4 Tuba
  • 6 Percussion
76-85 per band
Total Participants: 142-170