Honor Band and Honor Jazz Band Festivals

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Performances and Events
March 27-29, 2026

The Concordia High School Honor Band takes place every spring, where students can come together and create music at a high level. We're looking forward to welcoming you to campus March 27-29, 2026, for our next honor band!

Additionally, The Concordia College Band is excited to offer an Honor Jazz Band Festival as part of the Honor Band Weekend. The Honor Jazz Band Festival will feature a guest artist/conductor who will work with students throughout the weekend.

Honor Festival Highlights

  • Making music in an artistically rigorous and nurturing environment
  • Performing chamber repertoire coached by Concordia's distinguished wind and percussion faculty
  • Rehearsing and performing challenging repertoire under the direction of Concordia's Dr. Peter Haberman, director of bands, and Professor Russ Peterson, director of Jazz Studies and Jazz I

Shuttle Transportation Available

Transportation is available for students who live in the Twin Cities or along I-94 to Moorhead, Minnesota. This optional shuttle bus is available for a flat rate of $40. Stops are currently planned for Rosemount, Maple Grove, St. Cloud, and Alexandria. The form to sign up for the shuttle bus will be emailed to students who have completed the application and been accepted to the 2026 Honor Band.

Audition Info

Please note: The deadline for submitting an online application, with audition recordings embedded, is Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. Notification of acceptance will occur by Friday, Feb. 9, 2026.

Guest Composer and Conductor Adrian B. Sims

Adrian B. Sims (b. 2000), born in Seattle, is an accomplished composer, conductor, educator, and trombonist. His music has been performed at prestigious conferences such as The Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and at new music reading sessions across the country. His music has also been selected for the Bandworld Top 100 List, and many of his works appear on the J.W. Pepper Editor’s Choice List. Sims has also been selected as a winner in multiple composition competitions, including the Maryland Music Educators Association Young Composers Project and the Make Music Young Composers Contest. He is frequently invited to rehearse, conduct, and lead clinics with bands and orchestras across the United States. Sims is also active as an educator in the Maryland area and has worked with a variety of programs, including the Baltimore County Summer Music Camp, Terrapin Music Camp at the University of Maryland, and the DC Youth Orchestra Programs.
 
Sims is a graduate of the University of Maryland with degrees in music education and composition. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in composition at The University of Texas at Austin. As a trombonist, he has performed in a wide variety of musical ensembles, including pit and symphony orchestras as well as jazz and concert bands. Sims studied trombone with Matthew Guilford, solo bass trombonist with the National Symphony Orchestra, and Aaron LaVere, principal trombonist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He is grateful for the continued support from his middle and high school band directors, Cindy Stevenson and Christopher Gnagey. He credits Dr. Robert Gibson, professor of composition at the University of Maryland, and world-renowned composer Brian Balmages for his development as a composer.

Guest Conductor Malcolm Burke

Malcolm Burke is a doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities, pursuing a degree in conducting with a wind band emphasis. In addition to his studies, Burke serves as a teaching assistant for the university's School of Music and band program. Prior to Minnesota, Burke completed a Master of Arts in instrumental conducting in 2023 at the University of Central Florida. Before his graduate studies, Burke served as director of high school orchestras for five years at Mason City High School in Mason City, Iowa. In that position, the orchestra participated in the consortium commission of Shelley Hanson’s “The Beauty That Remains“ and received an invitation in 2019 to the University of Northern Iowa’s Orchestra Invitational. Burke was selected as a 2024 Reynolds Conducting Fellow and has served as the guest conductor for the Neoteric Chamber Winds and the UMBAS Summer Band. 

Jazz Guest Artist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown

Hailed as a “sax phenom” by the New York Daily News, Chad LB is a featured artist on two GRAMMY-winning albums and has toured through six continents playing venues from Carnegie Hall to the Super Bowl. As a bandleader, he’s headlined jazz venues and festivals around the world and, as a soloist, he’s joined acts like Chris Botti, Arturo Sandoval, and Christian McBride. No stranger to the big screen, he has been featured on numerous TV shows with pop icons like Taylor Swift, rock legends like Don Henley, as well as the Hollywood film “Here Today” with Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish.

A native of Elmira, New York, he established himself as a jazz prodigy at age 11, performing throughout New York State under the mentorship of local jazz hero George Reed, who was known for backing legends like Teddy Wilson, Buddy Tate, and Marian McPartland. He went on to pursue a formal education in the arts at the Brubeck Institute, a prestigious fellowship program created by jazz legend Dave Brubeck. While studying at the institute, he performed regularly with Brubeck and was a member of the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet. He received many accolades during his scholastic career, including 15 DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards for categories such as Best Jazz Soloist and Best Original Song.
 
His debut album, “Imagery Manifesto,” was named “Debut Album of the Year” by jazz critic and author Doug Ramsey, and two of his most recent recordings as a leader, “Onward” and “Live at The Bridge,” feature jazz legend Randy Brecker, with whom he has toured and headlined jazz festivals throughout the United States and Europe.

Contact

Kayla Bones
Manager of Instrumental Ensembles Music
P 218.299.4897
E kbones@cord.edu