[131] MTSU hosts 51st Contest of Champions Oct. 20 in Floyd Stadium

For release:  Oct. 19, 2012

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu

MTSU Band of Blue contact: Jennifer Stembridge, 615-898-5583 or Jen.Stembridge@mtsu.edu

MURFREESBORO — The 51st annual Contest of Champions high school marching band competition will be held Saturday, Oct. 20, in Middle Tennessee State University’s Floyd Stadium.

The preliminary event starts at 10 a.m. and the final event featuring the eight highest-scoring bands will begin at 7:30 p.m. A printable campus map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTParkingMap12-13. 

More than 6,000 band members and spectators will attend the competition that is the oldest consecutive marching band competition in the country and attracts the best marching bands in the state, plus Kentucky, Indiana and Oklahoma.

This year’s field includes three-time defending Tennessee champion Siegel of Murfreesboro; perennial contenders Franklin, Overton and McGavock from Nashville; and four-time Kentucky champion Barren County.

By late Saturday evening, the next Tennessee State Marching Band Champion will be crowned, with the top Tennessee and Kentucky bands receiving their respective Governor’s Cups. Awards also are presented to the top three bands in the A, AA and AAA classifications, and the out-of-state entries are eligible for these honors.

Other Class AAA contenders include Riverdale, Jasper, Ind., Knoxville Halls, Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett and Columbia Central. Class AA participants include Sapulpa, Okla., Seymour, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky., Male. Additional Class A bands include Station Camp of Gallatin, Tenn., Coffee County Central from Manchester, Tenn., Oakland, Antioch and Mt. Juliet.

In addition to the high school competition, the event will feature two exhibition performances from the nearly 460-member MTSU Band of Blue.

The competition not only brings people to Rutherford County who might not usually visit the area — bands from as far away as New York and Florida, have competed in past years — but it is also an opportunity for MTSU to recruit quality students from all disciplines.

Most of MTSU’s Band of Blue members aren’t music majors, said band coordinator Jennifer Stembridge. More than three-quarters of the band — 78 percent of the students who march and play — major in other areas.

Seven judges from around the country will rate bands on music performance, general effect and visual performance.

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Media welcomed

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