Press release and staff report
news@wbcowqel.com
Crawford County will be well represented musically at the 2016 Ohio State Fair which kicks off on Wednesday down in Columbus. Six high school students, one from Wynford and five from Bucyrus, were named as members of the All-Ohio State Fair Band and All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir.
Wynford’s Aryn Copeland will march in the band for the second straight year and will play the French horn.
Five Bucyrus students are members of the choir. They are alto 1 Victoria Adams, soprano 1 Haley Clingman, tenor 2 Jaden Maddle, and alto 2’s Aubrey Dye and Mary Hart.
In addition to daily performances at the Ohio State Fair which runs through Aug. 7, both the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir and All-Ohio State Fair Band will perform a free concert at 1 o’clock Sunday afternoon at the WCOL Celeste Center.
The All-Ohio State Fair Band was founded in 1925 and the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir was founded in 1963. The Band and Choir, composed of a total of 390 superior musicians (213 in band, 177 in choir) from 67 counties and 156 high schools all across Ohio, are a testament to the musical talents of young Ohioans.
The All-Ohio State Fair Band, with students ranging from grades 9 – 12, learns more than 50 pieces of concert music to prepare for the Fair and their traditional performance of John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever!” which closes each of their performances. Once the Fair opens, the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir sings six to eight concerts a day, marching up to ten miles a day to various performance sites around the 360-acre Ohio Expo Center.
Dr. Jon C. Peterson has been directing the Choir since 2014, Brian Dodd will begin his first year as AOSFB Director this year. Members of both the Band and Choir are selected based on a number of factors including student ability and recommendation from choral or band directors.