It's easy to forget in the midst of our extended GHHS Marching Band season, but we have LOTS of other performing instrumental music groups in the GH schools! This weekend, a number of our students participated in Honor Band performance opportunities, including Maddi Barger (8th grade, flute) Leela Stricklin (8th grade, tenor sax), Avery Szabo-Ramsey (7th grade, flute), Jack Smith (7th grade, trumpet), and Ellie Bills (7th grade, baritone), who performed in the Ohio Music Education Association District 15 Middle School Honor Bands on Saturday afternoon. They joined 200 musicians from around central Ohio for this special one-day event. Molly Brooks (8th grade, clarinet) was also selected for this opportunity, but was unable to perform.
Then on Saturday evening, Mira Bondy (9th grade, clarinet) and Max McCollough (10th grade, horn) performed in the Capital University Honor Band Festival for high school musicians. Mira placed into the second highest ensemble and Max earned the top horn spot in the top ensemble. Incredible accomplishments for both Mira and Max! You can check out a few photos from the weekend below. |
GHBOB congratulates all of these students for their hard work and willingness to take on extra performance challenges! Interested in how your student can participate in opportunities like this? Contact your student's director to learn more.
|
|
|
|
|
GH Band Dad Sark Mahdasian volunteered his time and talent to capture some beautiful photos of our seniors and their families during the senior recognition event on Thursday night. A couple are shared here, and you can click here to view all of them. We are so grateful to Sark for stepping in at the last minute to help make the night memorable for all! Other snapshots from last week's activities are shared below.
Our Bobcats take on the Comets of Marion Elgin High School this Friday at home at Bobcat Stadium in round one of the OHSAA state football playoffs - and football and cheer seniors will be honored before the game at 6:35pm. See you there! (Updated October 28, 2024) |
|
Your GHHS Marching Bobcats had a whirlwind couple of days this past weekend. First, they wowed the crowd with their Rihanna halftime show on the road at Centennial High School on Friday night (click here for full video) and supported the football Bobcats in bringing home their eighth win of this undefeated season.
Then on Saturday, they performed a "pop up" lawn concert in Grandview. This popular and in-demand silent auction item is available each spring at the BOBCake Bash, and this past year's winner brought the band in for the local Second Avenue block party, so the whole block could get in on the fun. There was lots of rocking and rolling and dancing in the streets! And after that, the Band enjoyed some dinner and socializing together at the home of fellow GHHS band members Lizzy and Lexy Smith. GHBOB gives another big shout out and THANK YOU to Lizzy and Lexy's parents, Karen and Adam Smith, for organizing and hosting the party - and to all the other families who donated food and drink for the event. A good time was had by all! Pics from this whole weekend of fun are available below. Enjoy! |
|
The GHHS Marching Band took their Rihanna show on the road this week, performing at halftime of the Bobcat football team's total dismantling of the Worthington Christian Warriors on Friday night. Enjoy a few photos and a video below!
(Updated October 5, 2024) |
|
Friday night was nothing if not memorable for our Bobcats! The outer edges of Hurricane Helene poured rain on Grandview Heights all day, but we still hosted the GHHS Marching Band and 8th grade band for a pregame dinner before the Homecoming festivities were scheduled to get underway.
The rains cleared up just in time for our GHHS Marching Band to lead the Homecoming Parade, but the stormy winds were still whipping across Anderson Field as the pregame show was performed and the Homecoming Court was introduced. Our own Lizzy Smith was crowned 2024 Homecoming Royalty during pregame, GHHS Marching Band members Leva Fischer, Lucas Schmied, and Sophia Szabo-Ramsey were also recognized as members of the Court. The football Bobcats took it to the visiting Whetstone Braves in the first half, and then our GHHS Marching Band was joined on field by the 8th grade Bobcat Band for a special joint performance. The last notes had barely faded away when the skies opened and Helene found us again, sending everyone except the football team and the heartiest fans running for cover! GHBOB gives a big shout out to Natalie Glenn, Nikki Ramming, and Melissa DeGraw who organized the pregame dinner for our students. GHBOB is also exceptionally grateful to all of the parents who helped to keep the waterlogged and wind-whipped concessions operations running on Friday night - especially MVP grillmaster Rick Willimot who showed up with his own portable grill in his trunk, just in case the outdoor grill wouldn't light to cook the pierogi special, saving the day! A handful of slightly damp GHBOBers still made it to the post-game debrief at Barrel & Taps, but we are hoping for a HUGE showing after the next (and last!) game on October 25. |
Photos this week mostly end after the parade, since things got a little nutty after that, but you can check out what we have below. The Bobcats remain undefeated, and we will all head to Worthington Christian this Friday for a hopefully less dramatic series of events. See you there -
GO BOBCATS! (Updated September 29, 2024) |
The GHHS Marching Band brought the rock band show home to Grandview on Friday night, showcasing their collaboration with School of Rock Columbus for the second time. A few photos are available below, and you can click here to see full video of each song from the halftime show.
(Updated September 22, 2024) |
|
In case you missed it, our GHHS Marching Band debuted their second show of the season at Bexley on Friday night - "Classic Rock Resurgence," a rock and roll collaboration with School of Rock. Here are some photos and video from the performance - and you can catch the HOME debut of the same show LIVE this Friday, September 20 at Bobcat Stadium! Don't miss it!
|
|
Our GHHS Marching Band students had a huge week last week - capped off by the second annual "Apple Night" at the Bobcats' football game. GHBOB members Jenni and Andy Betz and their family have introduced the apple night tradition in Grandview after enjoying it themselves as members of the Gallia Academy high school marching band together years ago. Once every season, a local Gallia County family picked apples and brought them to share with the marching band on a football Friday night, and the Betz family now does the same for our Grandview students. This year they brought enough to share with the cheerleaders, football team, and their coaching staffs as well, building goodwill and new connections among all our programs. Big thanks to the Betz family for making this a part of our football Friday nights in Grandview! A few apple-tastic photos are below, as well as some pics and video from the Friday night performance and our intrepid concessions stand volunteers.
The night before, our marching Bobcats helped kick off the fun at the annual Ox Roast pep rally and pit lighting event. Our sixteen band seniors got to join a couple dozen other senior athletes in the annual ceremonial lighting of the ox roasting pit. Bobcat Booster and friend of the band Victor van Buchem took some amazing photos that we are taking the liberty of sharing here.
Kudos to everyone who played a role in another great week of marching band activities!
(Updated September 8, 2024) |
|
|
Folks, our football Friday nights got kicked off in a grand fashion last night, with our marching Bobcats taking the field for the first time and putting on a terrific show. We unveiled our amazing senior banners honoring the sixteen marching members of the class of 2025, LOTS of new faces joined as parent volunteers to operate the concessions stands, the PRIDE OF THE BOBCATS made us proud on the field, and a whole bunch of GHBOB-ers showed up at Barrel & Taps after the game for some fun and good times together. Oh, and in the middle of it all our football Bobcats staged an impressive comeback victory, throwing up 28 points in the second half to beat Briggs 28-12 in their 2024 debut. It just really couldn't have been better!
A photo album of last night's activities is attached, and here is some video of the GHHS Marching Band's pregame show and halftime performances: [note, video has been moved to the video page of this web site, click here] See you all back at Anderson field in two weeks, for the next home Bobcat game! (Updated August 24, 2024) |
A HUGE thanks to all of our parent volunteers and high school musicians who worked hard last week to knock on as many Grandview Heights doors as possible. Our 2024 decal driveway extremely successful, raising very nearly $10,000 (and counting!) in support of our instrumental music students at all levels.
Kudos and special recognition go out to Molly Schmied and Sara Carini, who organized this year's drive, as well as Mona Barber who led an incredibly successful sponsorship drive that will add to our overall fundraising efforts to start the year. Grateful to have all of these people on the GHBOB team! Here are some photos from the decal drive launch: Thanks again to all involved - it was a terrific start to our fundraising year! (Updated August 25, 2024) |
|
Several of the parents who spent time at camp shared their photos and videos, and you can click here to see the full collection of them if you missed them on Facebook last week. THANK YOU to everyone who made this past week possible, including our hard-working and mostly well-behaved students!
(Updated July 28, 2024) |
|
|
|
After that morning of hard work, our students boarded the buses and headed off for some well-earned relaxation time at King's Island. We're told that even though they had to dodge a few rainstorms during the day, they managed to have a whole lot of fun as well. Here are some photos sent in by parent chaperones during the day:
|
|
For those who might have missed it, we had an incredible week of friend-raising and fundraising last week. We kicked things off on Wednesday evening with our orchestra students performing the first ever CUPCAKE CONCERT at the Grandview Heights Public Library. Almost thirty orchestra students performed, including 16 who volunteered to present solos and small ensembles, plus the full 8th grade and GHHS orchestras.
The GHBOB provided free cupcakes and a raffle, which included a $50 gift card to Johnson's Ice Cream, won by Derrick Knapp, and a BOBCake Bash ticket package, claimed by Ames Metcalf. We had a great crowd, raised a few hundred dollars, provided an opportunity for our orchestra students to perform in a non-school venue, and generally just kicked off our BOBCake Bash week with a bang! Check out the photos to the right. |
|
|
The talk of the Bobcake Bash evening was the beautiful "burn away" cake donated by A Cake For Leroy in the silent auction. Winners Mitch Harville and Jennifer Voit invited a few folks over on Saturday afternoon to watch it burn, including our own GHBOB president Dot Keil, who shared these photos and video (and pronounced the cake delicious):
It's truly impossible to thank everyone who contributed to the success of an event like this, but we are exceptionally grateful to the facilities team at GH Schools (who, in addition to all of their other plentiful support and hard work, pulled out the hydraulic lift to help rescue a "75" balloon from the rafters during setup), all of the teachers and administrators who volunteered to be "caked in the face", all of the many parents of band and orchestra students who volunteered their time, and the many other community members who don't even have a band or orchestra students who signed up to help as well. And our generous donors and sponsors, of course. Plus the hundreds of people who attended and participated and laughed and had fun - the smiles are what make it all worthwhile!
The GHBOB organization is truly honored to be the steward of this beloved community jewel, and we look forward to 75 more years of sweet memories....and cake! (Updated April 17, 2024) |
|
This past Saturday an unprecedented total of twenty
7th and 8th grade musicians participated in the OMEA District 15 adjudicated events opportunity at Dublin Scioto High School. These students presented a total of fourteen pieces via solos, duets, trios, or quartets - and eleven of them received the top rating of Superior, with the other three receiving the second highest rating of Excellent. GHBOB congratulates the following middle school musicians: Hudson Barber, Maddie Barger, Emma Binkley, Mira Bondy, Harper Cunningham, Evie DeLong, Lexi Goncz, Mary Herlihy, Sydney Herren, Bruno Lount, Summer Martinez-Wheeler, Halle McNamara, Rose Ritzman, Callie Rutter, Julia Staton, Leela Strickland, Isla Swisher, Brook Wangler, Sophie Welsh, and Zachary Young. (We caught pics of as many students as we could, but unfortunately we missed a few. There were just so many!)
GHBOB is proud to support this event every year, and positively thrilled that this year's participation is double the number of students from just one year ago. Great things are happening in our instrumental music programs! (Updated April 7, 2024) |
Our GHHS instrumentalists had a busy last week of school before spring break. It started with our GHHS Jazz Ensemble, giving their longest and most creative concert of the year. All the pieces on the concert program were arrangements or mash-ups of video game music, and some featured onstage costume changes and accompanying video montages! Guest artists Zach Compston and Logan Moore from the Jazz Arts Group joined the performance, and our students premiered four original works, including two arranged by Logan Moore and two arranged by our own GHHS senior and jazz ensemble member, Colin Parker!
The next day, all of our GHHS band and orchestra students had a unique opportunity, traveling together to Dayton to see an afternoon performance of the Dayton Philharmonic. The Dayton Phil performs at the stunning Schuster Center for the Performing Arts, a world-class facility that plays host to opera, musical theatre, traveling comedians, and concerts, among other things. The GH Band & Orchestra Boosters were proud to support this extended learning opportunity and field trip by purchasing their admission tickets. And our thanks to everyone reading this story, for your efforts to help us raise the funds that make these opportunities possible!
(Updated March 27, 2024) |
|
|
The weather threatened this year's Season in Review event too, but it mostly held off long enough for the GHHS Marching Band to show off their pregame show and all four halftime shows to a slightly damp and very appreciative crowd. Check out our photo album below, and click here to see video snippets from almost every show. (Note, we didn't record snippets of the senior show but there is a link to that full performance in the story above.)
Thank you for coming out to support our marching Bobcats - this is always such a great night for our band students! (Updated October 23, 2023) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Last year, the Boosters decided to make the event more inclusive, and invited the participation of seniors from across all fall sports teams instead of just football, and this year they included the seniors from the Marching Band as well. Marching Band Seniors Lyla Baxter, Steve Chordas, Freddie Keil, Ben Matter, Eryn O'Harra, Colin Parker, Sam Reichert, and Liv Rutter joined more than 40 other Bobcat seniors in lighting the first flames of a bonfire in the pit where the Boosters roast close to 2000 pounds of beef every year to make the fabled "ox sandwiches" for sale during the last day of the Ox Roast. The full GHHS Marching Band also participated in the pep rally that preceded the pit lighting, playing a few songs to pump up the crowd.
GHBOB-er Sandy O'Harra took many of the photos above (and certainly took all of the best ones!) and we are grateful to her for sharing them. We are also grateful to the Bobcat Boosters organization, for including our students! (Update September 10, 2023) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This past Saturday, a total of ten Larson Middle School students participated in the OMEA solo & ensemble competition at Canal Winchester High School. Not only is this an awesome, huge number of participating students, it's the first time that we have sent any students to the middle school competition in many, many years! Students prepare a short solo and/or ensemble piece, perform it in front of a judge (usually current or retired music educators), and receive a written rating and feedback for their performance. Congratulations to seventh and eighth grade students Laura Alvarez-Link, Hudson Barber, Mira Bondy, Evie DeLong, Bruno Lount, Max McCullough, Charlotte Ritzman, Callie Rutter, Audrey Siefker, and Isla Swisher for embracing this performance and learning opportunity! And kudos and thanks also to Mrs. Olis, Mr. Heath, and Dr. Julie Vish (Mrs. Olis's substitute during her maternity leave), for helping our students prepare for the big day. Mr. Heath and Dr. Vish spent many hours in Canal Winchester guiding our students through the experience as well! Check out some photos from the day down below.
The GH Band Parents Association is proud to have underwritten the students' participation in this activity - and of course that means we are grateful to all of you, as well, for helping to raise the funds that made it all possible. Thank you! (Updated March 26, 2023) |
|
This web site is maintained by the Grandview Heights Band & Orchestra Boosters, serving and supporting the instrumental music students of the Grandview Heights Schools.
|