Riverwood concert bands

The concert bands are the heart of our band program at Riverwood. All band students are enrolled in a concert band class.

Our concert band program focuses on teaching the “non-negotiables” of excellent music making: tone, rhythm, articulation, intonation, blend, balance, horizontal shape, and vertical alignment.

We work in class each day on fundamentals to build these skills, etudes to practice them in isolated contexts, and music literature to apply them in performance practice.

There are four band levels at Riverwood. Each is a class period during the school day. These classes count as a performing arts “pathway”.

Beginning Band - for students who have never played an instrument before and would like to build from the ground up in order to join an ensemble the following year.

Concert Band - for students who want to continue learning their instrument and perform medium level difficulty literature.

Symphonic Band - for students who want to develop musician skills and begin to perform more advanced literature

Wind Symphony - for students who want the highest level instrumental performance opportunity at Riverwood and want to perform collegiate-level literature