Current News
The 2008 Competition Show has been selected. It is called "Heroes Fallen, Not Forgotten". The music was written by Key Poulan, who composed the "Dragons" show from last year. It is a very intense show, paying tribute to those in the military who have given their lives in service to their country, and to those who got caught up in the midst of tragedy due to the actions of others, such as assassinated presidents and civil rights legends. It involves narration and historic sound clips, and promises to be a very moving show.
For the first time in decades, the Polar Bear Band will learn a second field show for the fall. It will be much lighter in nature, and will be used primarily for selected football game halftime or pregame shows. This second show will be "The Blues Brothers".
Finally, we just learned that the Pride of West Virginia, the WVU Mountaineer Marching Band will be the guest band for the 44th annual Band Spectacular on Sat, Sept. 13. This, along with record-setting interest from high school bands throughout the state, should make this one of the best Band Spectaculars in years.
The Polar Bear Band will be heading to sunny Florida from Feb. 27 - March 2. The band will be performing in a parade at Universal Studios on Saturday, March 1. In addition, we will go to a Blue Man Group concert. Below are links to some of the highlights of the trip:
Other news: The tag day scheduled for Sept. 29 has been cancelled. Also, this month's band booster meeting has been changed to Tues, Sept. 25 at 6:00 in the band room.
May 13: Congratualtions to Roxanne Brake, who will be the field commander for the 2008-09 Polar Bear Marching Band. Roxanne was selected through audition from eight very qualified candidates. Thanks to all who auditioned, and congratulations Roxanne.May 7: The Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Steel Drum Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble performed in the annual Spring Concert on Tues, May 6. The concert was terrific, and a great way to prepare for the end of the school year.March 3: The band recently returned from yet another successful Florida trip. The band traveled to Orlando from Feb. 27 - March 2. The band stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort and enjoyed three days at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. On Saturday, March 2 the band marched in a parade through Universal Studios. The band also enjoyed a show by the Blue Man Group, and an evening in Downtown Disney. A great time was had by all. Thanks to everyone for a successful trip!Feb. 8: The Polar Bear Band will have 9 representatives in the 2008 WVU Honors Band. Jessica Linger, Veronica Loss, Leah Nestor, Clayton Dunn, Warren Hilsbos, Jennifer Adams, Chelsea Gallagher, Kummih Govine, and Johnny Long were invited to be a part of this year's WVU Honors Band, which will perform in concert on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 2:00 pm at WVU's Creative Arts Center. Congratulations to all these band members on this honor!Feb. 1: We've just learned that Fairmont Senior will not have only one All State member this year, but two. Congratulations to Andrew Bonasso, who will be joining the All State Orchestra percussion section. Andrew did very well in the auditions, just missing the cutoff. The orchestra announced their repertoire for the All State concert, which requires more percussionists than usual, so Andrew was added as a member of the All State Orchestra. Congratulations!Jan. 25: Congratulations to Leah Nestor, selected for the 2008 WV All State Band. Leah is the only Marion County band member to be selected for this year's All State Band. She will be performing with the band in concert on March 29 in Wheeling, as the finale to the 2008 WV Music Educators Conference. Dec. 21: Attention Juniors: There is a great opportunity for you to audition for next year's All-American Marching Band. Students selected will receive an all-expense paid trip to San Antonio in January of 2009 to perform with the All-American Marching Band on national TV. The auditions are done via video, and Mr. Dunn can help any interested student with the taping process. The deadline for applications and audition videos is March 3, 2008. The auditions are open to current JUNIORS ONLY. All information, including audition materials, can be found at www.menc.org/allamerican Dec. 1: The Polar Bear Band will be providing a pep band for four home basketball games this season. The pep band will be performing at the following games:
Nov. 11: The date for the Christmas Concert has been confirmed. The concert will be on Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 7:00 pm in the FSHS Auditorium. Nov. 3: The Polar Bear Marching Band had a great ending to their competition season! On Nov. 3, the Polar Bear Band was crowned Group 4 Champion by placing first in the TOB Chapter 8 Championships in Connellsville, PA. The band earned their highest-ever score in a TOB competition with 86.65. Captions won by the Polar Bear Band include High Drum Major, High Auxiliary, High Music, High Woodwinds, High Visual, and High General Effect. Congratulations! Also, the East-West game was a success for the band, though the football team failed to post a win. The pre-game show featuring combined East and West Bands was great, and the flash cards in the stands were a big hit. Oct. 22: The Polar Bear Band helped celebrate the innauguration of WVU President and Polar Bear alumnus Mike Garrison by performing in the WVU Homecoming Parade on Friday, Oct. 19. Mr. Dunn was unable to be at the parade due to a medical condition, but he is fine now and will be back in action this week. The band has their first open weekend of the season this week, but will be rehearsing for next week's end-of-season weekend. The Polar Bear Band will be joining the East Fairmont Band for a special pregame show at the East-West Game on Nov. 2, and will finish the competition season at the TOB Chapter 8 Championship in Connellsville, PA the following day. Remember that there will be a special rehearsal with the East Fairmont Band on Monday, Oct. 29 at East-West Stadium to prepare for the pregame show. Oct. 14: Congratulations to the Polar Bear Band on a great show at their third contest of the season, at the WV State TOB Championship on Oct. 13. The band earned their highest score of the season, 81.3, placing second behind grand champion Hurricane. The next and final competition of the season will be the TOB Chapter 8 Championship in Connellsville, PA on Nov. 3. Oct. 10: We will be adding a rehearsal on Sat, Oct. 13 before departing for Charleston. Rehearsal will be on the parking lot from 1:00-2:30. Students should be at the parking lot with instruments (and empty cases) ready to START at 1:00 sharp. Pit and guard need to be at the parking lot by 12:30 to set up equipment. We will load the truck at the parking lot after rehearsal, and load the buses in the back drive at 2:45, departing at 3:00. Oct. 9: We were informed that the TOB competition which we had scheduled in Buckhannon on Oct. 20 has been canceled due to lack of bands registered. There are no other competitions on that date at a reasonable distance from us, so we will not be competing on Oct. 20. Oct. 7: Congratulations to the Polar Bear Band on a great performance at the Forest Festival in Elkins on Oct. 6. In the field show competition, the band earned a season-high score of 79.75, placing 2nd in Group 4, and 4th out of all 18 bands. In the parade competition, the band earned a score of 78.5, placing 2nd in Group 4, and 3rd out of all 25 bands in the parade. The Polar Bear Band will next compete at the TOB State Championship in Charleston on Oct. 13. Sept. 30: We have confirmed the WVU Homecoming Parade performance. Please mark your schedules for this parade on Friday, Oct. 19. The parade starts at 5:00 pm on High Street in Morgantown. Sept. 25: An addition is possibly being made to the schedule. The Polar Bear Band has been invited to march in the WVU homecoming parade on Friday, Oct. 19. This is in conjunction with Michael Garrison's inauguration as the new WVU President. As Mr. Garrison is an FSHS alumnus, WVU thought it would be nice for his alma mater band to be in the parade, either immediately in front of or behind his car. Please pencil in the date of Oct. 19 for this performance. Confirmation will be coming shortly. Sept. 23: The Polar Bear Band performed in their first competition of the season, Music in the Mountains at Preston High School on Sept. 22. The band had a great performance, earning a score of 76.35. We were 3rd out of 5 bands in Group 4, and 6th out of all 15 bands in the competition. The Polar Bear Band's next competition will be at the Mountain State Forest Festival in Elkins on Oct. 6. To see all TOB scores and info, Click Here Sept. 13: We have another change to our schedule (not a change of any dates, just location). Instead of the Hedgesville TOB competition on Oct. 20, we will now be going to the newly-announced West Virginia Autumn Classic, which is a TOB competition being held at Buckhannon-Upshur High School. This will be a much more reasonable trip for us on that day. Please make a note. Sept. 12: We have made a change in the schedule that everyone needs to be aware of. The USSBA Competition which was scheduled on Oct. 6 has been cancelled. Since we already had that as a competition weekend in our schedule, we are now going to be going to the Forest Festival in Elkins on that same date - Oct. 6. Please make a note of the change. Sept. 10: The Polar Bear Band hosted the 43rd Annual Band Spectacular on Sat, Sept. 8th at East-West Stadium. Twelve high school bands, inlcuding Fairmont Senior, East Fairmont, North Marion, Morgantown, Bridgeport, Grafton, Liberty, St. Mary's, Hedgesville, Philip Barbour, Robert C. Byrd, and Braxton all performed great shows for the crowd's entertainment. The special guest band this year was the Ram Band from Shepherd University, making their first appearance at the Band Spectacular. It was a great evening - thanks to everyone who helped make it a success! See pictures from all the bands at mobilephotography.com Aug. 25: The Polar Bear Marching Band had their first performance of the season at the home football opener vs. RCB on Aug. 24 at East-West Stadium. It was a very competitive game - unfortunately, the football team fell short at the end of the game, but the band put on a terrific debut of the Dragons show at halftime. Great job band members, and thanks again to all the parent volunteers who helped! July 29: The Polar Bear Marching Band
recently returned from Band Camp, which was held at Cedar Lakes in Ripley, WV
from July 22-28. The camp, although a little wet, was very successful.
The "Dragons" show is on the field and ready to start polishing before the home
opener on Aug. 24. Thanks to the students for all their hard work, and to
all the parent volunteers who helped everything run smoothly! June 7: Forty members of the band
traveled to Buckhannon on June 5 to attend a day-long workshop with the 9-time
DCI World Champion CADETS. It was a great day, and everyone learned a lot.
It was very inspiring to see the incredible work done by the Cadets, and it
inspired everyone in attendance to work even harder to achieve their best.
We would like to congratulate the Cadets on their 2nd place finish at
the DCI World Championships in Pasadena on Aug. 11.