Germantown Band gearing up for competition this weekend

The Germantown High School Band is gearing up for the first 7A band competition this weekend at Northwest Rankin High School.

“We are the current 6A state champions so I guess we will be defending that in a way in the first-ever 7A championships,” Germantown High School Director of Bands Justin Harvison said.

Harvison has been with the district for 16 years and helped found the band program at Germantown High School 13 years ago. He said his group of around 170 students is ready to compete.

“We have an exceptional group of students this year,” Harvison said.

Their show this year is titled ‘Sonic Bloom” and features arrangements of existing music that Harvison called a “psychedelic intersection of music and nature.” 

“Basically the idea is ‘What if plants could make their own music?’” Harvison said.

Music selections for the show include “The Bioluminescence of the Night” from the album Avatar by James Horner, Kingfisher’s “Catch Fire” by John Mackey, “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” by Sergei Rachmaninov, “The Rite of Spring” by Igor Stravinsky, “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov and “Firefly” by Ryan George.

He said this is a mix of music that people will recognize and some selections people will likely encounter for the first time.

“There is a lot of variety in the music,” Harvison said. “I think there is something for everyone. The students love it.”

GHS has already performed well at invitational competitions this year including recent events in Ridgeland and Pearl. At both competitions, they took superior ratings in all six categories and were named champions of both.

Following the state competition, Harvison will take the band to St. Luis for the Bands of America Super Regional where they finished in the top 20 last year out of 70 bands.