The event at 6:30 p.m. at Strider Field will feature bands from around New York and Pennsylvania. The JHS Marching Band will perform their 2022 show, Lunar Odyssey.

The Fall Festival of Bands is the Marching Band’s most significant annual fundraiser.

Tickets are $7 presale and $9 at the door. They can be purchased from any band member or by calling 716-483-4217.

Jamestown High School Marching Band Squad Leaders

The Jamestown High School Marching Band will hold its annual Community Preview Night this Friday, August 26.

The free show will begin at 8:00 p.m. at Strider Field.

The community is welcome to attend the Community Preview Night to learn more about the marching band program and see a preview of their 2022 show, Lunar Odyssey.

The performance will take place, weather permitting, at 1pm at Strider Field. Jamestown Public Schools will announce on their social media if the event needs to be cancelled.

On Sunday, the marching band will then compete in the New York State Field Band Conference Championship Show at the Carrier Dome. JHS Marching Band Director Meghan Murray said the competition is special for students because it’s the one time they can be with bands from all over the New York State, “Jamestown Marching Band is in the national class and so that is the Field Band Conference’s top class. So there are eight bands in that class, so we are one of 8 in the state, none of which really are local so it’s nice for us to have the chance to compete against those other national class bands.”

The championship competition brings together over 50 high school marching bands in the northeastern United States. The JHS Marching Band will be performing music from the musical and movie version of “Evita.”

WRFA’s Julia Ciesla-Hanley spoke with Jamestown High School Marching Band Director Meghan Murray about the ensemble’s upcoming trip to Syracuse on Halloween for the annual state championship.

The JHS Marching Band will perform their 2021 show: Evita.

Tickets are $7 presale and $9 at the door. Tickets for admission can be purchased from any band member or by calling (716) 483-4217.

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Originally airing Thursday, May 23, 2019

WRFA’s Jason Sample talks with JHS Marching Band Director Megan Murray, JHS A Cappella Choir Director Norm Lydell, and Jamestown Development Director Vince DeJoy to learn more about the July 19 fundraiser at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, featuring the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra performing the music of Queen.

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JHS A Cappella Choir Director Norm Lydell, City of Jamestown Director of Development Vince DeJoy, JHS students: Caleb Kindberg, Dylan Lydell, Courtney Grey, City of Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi and JHS Marching Band Director Meghan Murray (photo courtesy of Jamestown Public Schools)

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board Tuesday gave its approval to a trip to Florida by the Jamestown High School Marching Band in December 2019 to perform at Disney World.

According to Jamestown High School Marching Band music instructor Norm Lydell, the performance just after Christmas will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the students in the band.

“This is something that’s been kind of brewing for a number of years, kind of a dream of mine to perform what’s called the ‘Candlelight Processional’ at Epcot Center,” Lydell told WRFA following the school board vote. “It’s a very special performance at the holiday time of  year and trying to coordinate a trip at Christmas time is very difficult from a fundraising and trip payment standpoint, but we took a shoot and submitted a video application and it was accepted, so we’re very excited to be going.”

To help offset the cost of the trip, it was also announced the Marching Band will hold a special fundraiser on Friday, July 19 at the Reg Lenna Center For The Arts featuring the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) performing The Music of Queen: A Rock Symphony.

Jamestown High School Marching Band director Megan Murray said bringing BPO to Jamestown will be a special event not just for the marching band, but the entire community.

“It’s nothing like we’ve ever done before so it’s a really neat, different type of fundraiser where the nice part is the kids don’t have to do the fundraising and the parents don’t have to pay anything out of pocket – unless they want to go to the concert of course,” Murray said. “It kind of helps us in that way but it also is a great community event so it brings those two worlds together, our music department and the Jamestown Community, for a nice summer night out.”

The cost of bringing the prestigious BPO to Jamestown will be provided in part with the assistance of a $50,000 grant from the Jamestown Local Development Corporation’s (JLDC) Downtown Programming Fund program, which was established with $600,000 from the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant the city received from the state in 2016.

“This is the first show that will actually be presented using this fund,” explained City Development Director and JLDC executive director Vince DeJoy. “The grant is made available to secure the talent for what’s going to be a fantastic show. Tickets go on sale this week and we’re just very excited about this.”

Initial details of the concert were discussed by the JLDC board at the start of February when it approved the grant for the program, although the specific details that it would be a BPO show couldn’t be made public until after the school board gave its permission for the trip to Disney World.

In addition to funding by the JLDC, the newly opened DoubleTree by Hilton Jamestown has also signed on as the corporate sponsor.
Murray said if the show is sold out, the event should be able to raise an estimated $10,000 for the Marching Band and its trip to Disney World.

Tickets for the show start at $35 apiece and will go on sale at the Reg box office this morning. They can be purchased by stopping by the box office between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., by calling (716) 484-7070, or by visiting RegLenna.com.

The JLDC board of directors held its first meeting of the new year and as part of new business the panel unanimously approved two resolutions that would provide $50,000 in grant funding to the National Comedy Center for an additional event at the Northwest Arena during the 2019 Lucille Ball Comedy Festival in August.

In addition, the board approved a resolution that would give $50,000 in grant funding to the Jamestown High School Marching Band, along with an upfront $25,000 loan for a major fundraising event on Friday, July 19 at the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts. The Marching band is hoping to generate a net profit of $15,000 from the event.

The funding would come from city’s Downtown Programming Fund.

City Development Director and JLDC Executive Director Vince DeJoy said the funding for the Marching Band event would be used to cover various costs associated with the event.

The Reg Lenna Center for the Arts will be the location for a special fundraiser for the Jamestown High School Marching band on July 19, 2019 featuring a “significant name and talent” according to organizers who are unable to disclose more specifics until contracts are signed. Funding for the event is made possible, in part, to the city’s Downtown Programming Fund.

“The total expenses for this program, including talent, travel, hospitality, production costs, stage, lights, marketing, etc. is $119,000. It’s a very significant name and talent that the Marching Band is hoping to bring to the Reg,” DeJoy said.

Because contracts still have to be signed for the entertainment that will be participating in both events, specific details of what the events would entail were not disclosed and would be released at a later date.

Also, while the JLDC board approved the funding allocations, the resolutions must also be reviewed by the state and approved in order to be finalized. That’s because the grant money comes from a $600,000 pool of money from the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative Grant the city received in 2017.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, who serves as the president of the JLDC board, also provided a reminder of what the event program funding can be used for.

“This program is intended not to fund existing events and activities that are already underway. We’re not here to pay for somebody else’s sponsorship or subsidy, but to deal with brand new events that otherwise wouldn’t occur. Or in the case of an existing event like the annual Lucy Fest that’s operated by the Comedy Center where there is a significant and quantifiable increase and expansion in an existing event, and that’s what’s happening with the NCC event,” Teresi explained.

The JLDC also reminds the community that additional funding remains available for anyone wishing to put on a major event in the downtown area of the city and needs support to do so.

In other news from the meeting, the JLDC board approved a unanimous consent resolution that was signed in late 2018 involving changes to the terms of a $180,000 JLDC loan for the Jamestown Brewing Company.

That loan was one of several loans and funding sources the business owners – father-son duo John McLellan Sr. and John McLellan Jr. from Buffalo – requested in 2017 in order to get their operation off the ground. However, delays in the renovation effort of the building where the business will be located forced a delay in the opening. As a result of the delay, all lending sources – both public and private –  made an effort to restructure their respective loans to accommodate the McLellans and ensure they have enough startup capital for its opening, now planned for March 2019.

Because the JLDC loan exceeded $100,000, the changes had to also be approved by the Jamestown City Council – which it did by a vote of 8 to 1 during its October 2018 meeting.

And the JLDC board also welcomed two new members. Vicki McGraw will be the representative of the Jamestown Chamber of Commerce, taking over for Russ Diethrick. And Chris Sellstrom will be the representative for the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, taking over for John Whitaker.  The JLDC  bylaws state that a representative from those two organizations, along with the Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier, must have a seat on the board.

Image courtesy of Jamestown Public Schools.

Jamestown High School’s Red Raider Marching Band will hold it annual Community Preview Night Thursday at 8 p.m. on the field behind Jamestown High School. The community is welcome and encouraged to attend the free Community Preview Night to learn more about the marching band program and see a preview of their 2018-19 show.

Jamestown High School Marching Band, 2015 State Champions

SYRACUSE – The Jamestown High School Red Raider Marching Band is state champions for the second year in a row.

With a final score of 90.4, the band finished first in the Large School 2 Division of the State Field Band Conference on Sunday at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.

There will be a celebration for the marching band on Monday at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall. The band will play it’s award-winning performance with speeches from local dignitaries including Mayor Sam Teresi and Jamestown superintendent Tim Mains.