Attention Alumni
For 99 years students in Asheville City Schools have participated in the band program. As we approach the 100th year of band in ACS there is an effort to begin to organize alumni for an alumni band event in the Spring of 2024. Whether you graduated in 2020 or 1950 we want your info!
If you were in the band program in ACS make sure to fill out this form so that we can keep you informed about alumni events associated with this and send you info a few times a year about what is going on with the band program. As we lead up to the 100th anniversary of band in ACS in 2024 events will be planned for the Spring of 2024 and Fall of 2024 featuring an alumni concert band and alumni marching band at games. Fill out the info form below to get on the mailing list:
https://forms.gle/3zH23xiyXZp89nNe8
The band program in Asheville City Schools is the oldest continuing band program in North Carolina and has a long history of excellence. Beginning in the fall of 1924, the Asheville High Band started under the leadership of British Military Bandsman Colonel George E. Hurt, WWI veteran and graduate of the Royal Navy School of Music. Pictured above is a picture of the 1926 AHS Band on the David Millard campus pictured in front of the school. The bands from both the west campus at Hall Fletcher and the east campus at David Millard combined as did athletic teams to form the “Asheville High Band” before they were centralized in the new school downtown.
Throughout the 20’s and 30’s under the leadership of Edwin Gould, M.T. Iverson, Walter Von Brock, Pittenger Fox, and others the band grew and thrived attending the state band contest, performing at football games and community events, and even for Franklin D. Roosevelt in his 1937 visit at McCormick Field. Asheville High attended North Carolina’s 2nd State Concert Band Contest in 1926 for the first time and has continued to attend ever since. Pictured to the right is the 1929 Asheville High Band on the steps of the new centralized Asheville High School Building on McDowell Street.
Throughout the 1940’s and 50’s the band program in Asheville City School was led by Joe DeNardo, known as “Mr. Music,” who directed both the feeder programs at Hall Fletcher and David Millard and the band at the renamed Lee Edwards High School (AHS). Pictured above is DiNardo conducting the Hall Fletcher Band.
Marching Band in 1952 under the direction of Joe DiNardo
In addition the band program at AHS/Lee Edwards, it is important to remember that before schools were integrated ACS was home to the largest comprehensive high school for African American students in Western North Carolina. Part of that school tradition was the thriving and award-winning band led by Madison “Doc” Lennon, who later went on to Spellman College. Stephens Lee High School is pictured below:
Upon the retirement of DiNardo, Ed Bensen was hired as the Director of Music for Asheville City Schools / Director of the Lee Edwards Band, and in 1961 Pat Garren was hired which began a period of growth and quality in bands that has continued to the present day. With school integration in the 1970’s the band programs were consolidated at the new South French Broad Junior High and the newly integrated Asheville High School under the leadership of Pat Garren and Ernie Black. By the 1960’s both the junior high and high school bands were attending the district/state band contest regularly and achieving one Superior Rating after another. Pictured are the 1966 concert and marching bands.
More content will be added here as it is scanned from the AHS Alumni Center. If you have band pictures to share, please email them!