This Saturday the Eastland High School Band performed at Mineral Wells HS Stadium in the Region 7 Marching contest.  The band left with 1st division ratings from all 3 of their contest judges (the highest score possible at region UIL).  This is the Band's 9th consecutive year to receive a 1st division rating at marching contest. 

The band's show this year is titled Chess: A Game of Revolution.  The show involves giant chess pieces that move around the field (built by band parents with Ken Smith, local carpenter, leading the project). It features music from Shostakovitch, Muse, and Tears for Fears.  The show designer is Clayton Harris and music arranger is Luke McMillan.

The band has had a fantastic semester with performances and awards at several contest including wining best in class, outstanding 3A percussion, and  outstanding 3A color guard at the Paluxy Valley Marching Contest in Glen Rose.   One particular performance of note was the football game in Early a couple of weeks ago.  Due to a power failure, all of the lights in the stadium went out 5 seconds into the haltftime show.  The band, well prepared, continued performing in the dark without hesitation and received a standing ovation from the crowd at Early.

This year was the first time in almost a decade that the band had a color guard.  Led by Shelley Reinhardt and Stacey Jones, the color guard has garnered praise everywhere they have performed.  Choreographer for the colorguard is Mike  McGeehee.

The band is directed by Stephen Cox, Jett Lowrance, and Juan Hernandez.  This year the band has had a student teacher helping in the program: Grant Shane from Tarleton State University.   The Band will perform their full show this Friday at the game in Maverick stadium and have one last contest performance on November 10th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX.

Time for the Beginning of School Video 2018 edition.  This one was particularly fun!

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It's that time of year again for our Eastland Band 1st Day of School Video.   Special thanks for Stephanie Cox and Ashley Lowrance for helping out again,

​Every year in the state of Texas bands enter their contest recordings into a state wide contest called the Outstanding Performance Series. This compares recordings back to back with other bands across the state in an elimination and ranking system.

This year the Eastland Middle School Honor Band advanced a concert selection and a march to the state level. On July 21st during the final judging Eastland was ranked 6th on the concert piece and took home the 1st place title in the March category.

This is an unprecedented achievement for Eastland Middle School.

Jett Lowrance directs the Eastland Middle School Honor Band, an ensemble made up of forty-three 7th and 8th grade students. The Eastland band program consists of a 6th grade beginner band program, a 7th and 8th grade band program, and a high school band program that includes 9th-12th grade students. 

Eastland offers a jazz class for grades 8-12. The jazz class averages 55 members split into two performing and competing ensembles. 6th and 7th Grade students audition each year for the Middle School Symphonic and Honor Bands. Stephen Cox directs the symphonic band, high school band, and Jazz Band 1. Both Middle School bands competed at UIL last year, a first for two middle school bands from Eastland ISD, and both bands received a first division in Concert. During the 2015-2016 school year, the Eastland High School Band received their seventh consecutive UIL sweepstake award and competed in the AAA UIL State Marching Contest where they ranked sixteenth. 

Jett Lowrance is responsible for the middle school band program, and Stephen Cox is responsible for the high school band program; both programs are team-taught. The amazingly wonderful and multitalented Ashley Lowrance teaches 6th grade percussion. The principal of Eastland Middle School is Jason Henry and the superintendent for Eastland ISD is Jason Cochran.

So we made this video to start off classes in the middle school.  It was amazing fun to make, and thank you to all involved.  We hope this makes you laugh and gets you excited about band this year!

Well, the band hall definitely needed some love.  It was very important to me that we create a warm and inviting environment for our students.  So we took on a major project.  We repainted the offices (which had not been painted since the building was built in the 1980's) as well as the LARGE room and the practice rooms.  We cleaned up all the trash, removed old posters, cleaned like we were crazy, hung shelves, organized materials, hung new decor, and painted all 27 doors.

It only took about two months, and I would have never finished without some major help from Mr. and Mrs. Lowrance.

Special thanks to the band boosters as well for the help with posters and furniture.

But enough talk, lets get to the before and after slide show!

Drawing by Ashley Lowrance