Higgins Middle School’s combined seventh and eighth grade band program recently received the highest overall score at the Great East Festival in Springfield, the first time since 2008 that the program received the distinction.
“The group earned a Platinum medal…with a score of 95/100,” Higgins Middle School Band Director Mike Giannopolo said. “I’m very proud of them. They prepared for months for this festival and have worked extremely hard.”
Roughly 50 students from Higgins Middle School participated in the festival that brought middle and high school students from all over New England together.
According to Giannopolo, the students performed three selections: A march by David Martin called “The Collegiate,” an arrangement of the hymn “Be Still, My Soul” by Robert W. Smith and “Hammer and Rail” by Travis Weller. The seventh and eighth graders are respectively in their third and fourth years of instrumental music study.
