A Festival for Band and Orchestra Ensembles

Middle and High School Concert Bands, Jazz Bands, and Orchestras
April 17-18, 2026

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About the Festival

The Charleston Music Festival was founded in 2013 by music educators whose goal was to provide a rewarding and educational experience for middle and high school ensembles. Groups will perform a typical CPA-type program for three adjudicators who will provide ratings and recorded feedback. Immediately following the stage performance, one of the adjudicators will give a playing clinic to the group.

Charleston was chosen for its prestige as a historic city with so many opportunities for student group fun and exploration. Beyond the musical experience the festival provides, groups gain knowledge and experience through educational activities like the SC Aquarium, various tours and harbor cruises, visiting historic markers and buildings, and even going to the beach. Some groups make it a day trip, while others stay for two or three days. The Charleston Music Festival staff can help make arrangements for lodging, food, and any activities available.

More About Charleston

Band and Orchestra

The Charleston Music Festival will be held in one of Charleston County Schools’ performing arts centers. In addition to performing in a fine music hall, your band or orchestra will receive a beautiful wall plaque and rating trophy, recorded comments, and a full 30-minute playing clinic from one of our nation's top adjudicators and clinicians.

Pool of Adjudicators

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Scott Weiss

University of South Carolina

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John Culvahouse

Professor of Music (Retired)

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Sue Samuels

Furman University

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Joel Denton

Ooltewah High School (Retired)

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Andrew Gowan

University of South Carolina

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Cormac Cannon

University of South Carolina

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Freddy Martin

Westminster Schools (Retired)

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Gary Gribble

Pope High School (Retired)

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Scott Rush

Wando High School

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Optional Leadership Workshop

Bobby Lambert, nationally recognized Student Leadership Clinician, will conduct an optional Leadership Workshop that will be catered to your leaders' ages and ensemble type. This workshop will be open to any group, regardless if they have an ensemble performing during the day.

  • Student Leadership Workshop Fee is $30.00 per student

Registration Information

The Registration Fee of $75 is due by November 15. The fee increases to $100 after November 15. There is no guarantee of performance times after November 15. Priority scheduling is based on postmark of the received registration and deposit.

Performance Fee

$49.95/ Per Person
  • Participation in Festival
  • Private Clinic Following Performance
  • Written and Taped Comments Provided on Flash Drive
  • Participation Plaque
  • Awards include Gold Standard, Silver Standard, and Bronze Standard
  • Directors and Chaperones FREE
  • Festival Tee Shirts Available for Purchase

Hotels, meals, and sightseeing activities are available upon request. Sightseeing activities include historic and ghost tours, harbor cruises, private BBQ dinner cruise, aquarium, museums, sporting events, local theater and ballet companies, beautiful beaches, and many wonderful restaurants that cater to large groups. Premium downtown or beach front hotels are also available. Call us at (803) 239-6595 for additional information.

Register Your Ensembles for the Charleston Music Festival

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John Culvahouse

John Culvahouse

Dr. John N. Culvahouse recently retired as Professor of Music Education from Kennesaw State University. From 1991 until 2007, he served on the faculty at the University of Georgia, where he was a tenured Associate Professor and member of the Graduate Faculty. Prior to his appointment at UGA in 1991, Dr. Culvahouse taught in the public schools in South Carolina and Tennessee for 17 years, where he directed high school, middle school, and elementary school bands. He received the Bachelor and Master of Music Education degrees from the University of Tennessee and the Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of South Carolina. Mentors and major professors include Stanley Barnes, WJ Julian, William J. Moody, and James Copenhaver.

Dr. Culvahouse has served as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician in several states, Canada, and Western Europe. Professional affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association (past Georgia State Chair), Georgia Music Educators Association, National Association for Music Education, East Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (former Epsilon Lambda Chapter Advisor), Phi Beta Mu (Tennessee Chapter Past-President and South Carolina Past-Vice-President), Pi Kappa Lambda, Kappa Kappa Psi (Honorary), and National Band Association where he served on the Board of Directors on four occasions. As a long time NBA member, he conducted bands at the 1980, 1988, and 1994 conventions, including a 1988 performance by the Sumter, SC High School Symphonic Band. His NBA service began as Tennessee State Chair in the late 1970's, continued as an elected High School Representative, elected Representative At-Large, and Southern Division Chair. He served as President from 2009-2012. In 2014, he was elected to the membership of the American Bandmasters Association.

Dr. Culvahouse was appointed Associate Conductor of Tara Winds Community Band in the fall of 2011. He serves on the Board of Directors of the John Philip Sousa Foundation. He is a Sudler Flag of Honor and Sudler Trophy Laureate. He was presented the coveted Orpheus Award by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity in 2006 and the National Band Association has presented him the Citation of Excellence on six occasions.

Sue Samuels

Sue Samuels

Dr. Samuels returned to her alma mater in 2019 as Director of Bands and Coordinator of Music Education Studies. Prior to Furman, she was Director of Visual and Performing Arts at Randolph School in Huntsville, Alabama and served for 14 years as Director of Bands at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her responsibilities included teaching and administering the Marching Blazers, the Wind Symphony, the Symphony Band, and the Blazer Band, as well as teaching courses in conducting and music education. During her time at UAB, the Marching Blazers more than doubled in number, performed nationally and internationally before tens of thousands, and garnered a reputation as one of the outstanding college marching bands in the southeast. In addition, Dr. Samuels created the UAB All-Star Band Festival which served more than 300 high school students from Alabama each fall, and more than 600 young musicians were served at the annual Middle School and High School Honor Band festivals each December.

Under Dr. Samuels’ direction, the UAB Wind Symphony performed at local and regional festivals including the Alabama Music Educators State Conference, the Southern Division of the College Band Directors National Association, and the Grainger Festival in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Samuels’ teaching experience prior to her arrival at UAB includes 12 years at Lassiter High School in Marietta Georgia, 1 year as Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Georgia, and 2 years as Director of Bands at WT Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia. Under her direction, all bands she conducted received straight superior ratings at festivals over her 14-year career as a high school band director. In addition, the bands at both Lassiter and Woodson performed at the Bands of America National Concert Band Festival, and the Lassiter Band won the 1998 Marching Band Grand National Championships.

In addition to her work as a band director, Dr. Samuels enjoys being a mom to her beautiful son, Andrew, whom she adopted from Ethiopia in 2010.

Scott Weiss

Joel Denton

Mr. Joel L. Denton served as Director of Bands at Ooltewah High School for thirty-seven years. Mr. Denton is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and has completed graduate studies at UT-Chattanooga. Mr. Denton currently serves as an adjunct instructor of Instrumental Music Education at Lee University. Prior to his retirement in 2018, he was recognized as a CMA Music Teacher of Excellence. At the 2015 Midwest Clinic, Mr. Denton was awarded the John Phillip Sousa Foundation Legion of Honor for his contributions to band. Under his direction, the Ooltewah Band achieved a national reputation for musical excellence including performances in the 2017 Tournament of Roses Parade, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2013 and 2007, and as the only band in the 2011 Disney Christmas Parade on ABC. The Ooltewah Marching Band was a consistent finalist at Bands of America Regional Championships being awarded multiple class championships and placements, and was a national semi-finalist on multiple occasions with several class placements. The Ooltewah Concert Bands performed at the Music for All Southeast Regional Concert Festival in 2016, the TMEA (TN) State Music Conference in 2014 and 2010, the Smoky Mountain Music Festival in 2011(Grand Concert Division Champions), and multiple other state, regional and national events through the years. He served as Chairman of Fine Arts at Ooltewah from 1982 until his retirement and was selected five times as the Ooltewah Teacher of the Year. The Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts has thrice honored him. Mr. Denton is an elected member of the East Tennessee Band and Orchestra Association Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Bandmasters Hall of Fame. His professional affiliations include National Association for Music Education, Tennessee Music Education Association, East Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association, Phi Beta Mu, National Band Association, American School Band Director Association, and Tennessee Bandmasters Association. Mr. Denton currently serves as the Tennessee State Chair for the National Band Association and is a Past President of the East Tennessee Band and Orchestra Association and the Tennessee Bandmasters Association. He has served as the State Legislative Delegate and Advocacy Chair for Tennessee Music Education Association and served as a member of the Tennessee Department of Education’s Fine Arts Student Growth Committee. He is active as an adjudicator, clinician, and consultant working with Music for All/Bands of America, Drum Corps International, several universities and state organizations, as well as, many high school bands across the nation. Mr. Denton presents professional development sessions across the nation and also works with band programs and other organizations on developing leadership and teambuilding skills. Mr. Denton and Kerry, his wife of thirty-eight years, reside in Chattanooga and have two adult children, Alex and Caroline, who are both teachers.

Andrew Gowan

Andrew Gowan

Andrew Gowan is a native of Jackson, Tennessee. His experiences include successful teaching in the schools of Bolivar, TN, the Briarcrest Schools of Memphis, TN, and Lander University in Greenwood, SC.

Dr. Gowan joined the School of Music faculty at the University of South Carolina in 1984 and has been involved with the marching and concert bands, music education and conducting classes, and woodwind instruction. He has served as a guest conductor, clinician and adjudicator of bands, orchestras, and choirs in more than a dozen states. His articles have appeared in the Instrumentalist and the Journal of Band Research, and his compositions and arrangements for woodwinds are published by Roncorp, Inc. As a professional saxophonist he has performed with such entertainers as Ray Charles, Lou Rawls, Johnny Mathis, Les Elgart, the Four Tops, and the Temptations.

Dr. Gowan is presently serving as Executive Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Studies in the USC School of Music.

Cormac Cannon

Cormac Cannon

Cormac Cannon is Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at the University of South Carolina, where he conducts the University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble, guides the graduate wind conducting program, and oversees all aspects of the band program. His appointment as Director of Bands follows four years as Associate Director of Bands and Director of Athletic Bands, during which time the Symphonic Winds performed for the Southern Division of the College Band Directors National Association and the South Carolina Music Educators Annual Conference, and the Carolina Band was a featured performer at the CBDNA National Conference. Previously, Cannon served for six years on the music faculty at Michigan State University. As a passionate proponent of new music, Cannon has commissioned and premiered works by composers including Joel Puckett, Frank Ticheli, Ricardo Lorenz, Omar Thomas, Timothy Mahr, Dan Welcher, David Kirkland Garner, John Frantzen, and Baljinder Sekhon, among others.

Cannon earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting at the University of Texas at Austin in 2009. He received the Master of Music degree in wind conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Bachelor of Music degree in percussion performance and music education from the University of Iowa. From 2001-2005 Cannon served as director of bands at Williamsburg High School in Williamsburg, Iowa, and from 2006-2007 was music director and conductor of the Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble.

Cannon has a diverse background as a conductor, composer, arranger, lecturer, and author. His wind ensemble transcription of John Adams' The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra published by G. Schirmer/AMP was recently hailed by the composer as "remarkable" and "wonderfully inspired," and he worked as consultant to Mr. Adams in the preparation of a new edition of the orchestral work. Cannon has been a featured presenter at numerous state and national music conferences, including the Midwest Clinic. His research on the sense of belonging in college marching band was featured as a juried session at the 2017 CBDNA National Athletic Band Symposium, and this research has been reviewed by national journals of psychology and management. Dr. Cannon is co-author of The Complete Marching Band Resource Manual, published by University of Pennsylvania Press. He is featured in Composers on Composing for Band Volume IV, and has contributed to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series, both published by GIA Music.

Cormac resides in Lexington, SC with his wife Laura, a pharmacist, and their three sons, Colton, Bailey, and Greyson.

Freddy Martin

Freddy Martin

Freddy Martin was born and raised in Cobb County, Georgia. He attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama where he received the Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education. Mr. Martin has also done post-graduate work at Georgia State University in Atlanta. In May 2014, Mr. Martin was granted an honorary doctorate in music education from the Vandercook College of Music in Chicago for his many years in education and for his quality of service to the music education profession.

Mr. Martin has taught at South Cobb High School in Cobb County Georgia, with the famed “Spirit of Atlanta” Drum Corps, and for Buford City Schools in Atlanta. Mr. Martin recently retired as band director at the Westminster Schools. He is now caption coordinator for brass with the Cavaliers Drum Corps from Rosemont, Illinois. He is the founding director of the “Spirit of Atlanta” Drum and Bugle Corps and continues to serve the Corps today as Director Emeritus. Mr. Martin is a member of the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame. This is his 52nd year of teaching.

Gary Gribble

Gary Gribble

Gary D. Gribble was the Director of Bands at Pope High School from 1987-2018. Mr. Gribble earned his Associate Degree in Commercial Music and his BMuEd from Georgia State University. He earned the MA in Music from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Under his direction, the Pope HS Band earned over 450 awards of excellence and was a Bands of America Region champion, a regional finalist 20 times, and a Grand National semi-finalist twice. The Pope Band received the prestigious “Sudler Shield of Marching Excellence” from the John Philip Sousa Foundation. Mr. Gribble has served as an adjudicator, guest conductor, and clinician for band programs across the country.

Mr. Gribble is a member of GMEA, NAfME, NBA, ITG, PAS, Tri-M Music Honor Society, ASBDA, and Phi Betu Mu Band Fraternity. He was cited in 1987 as an "Outstanding Young Man of America," was selected for inclusion in the 1989-1990 edition of "Who's Who in American Education," and was Pope's "STAR Teacher" in 1989-1990. Mr. Gribble was a 1994 ASBDA “Distinguished Director”. He has been named in “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers twice. In 1996, Mr. Gribble choreographed a portion of the opening ceremonies for the Paralympic Games in Atlanta. Mr. Gribble has been awarded the National Band Association "Citation of Excellence" on four occasions. In 1999, Mr. Gribble was named a member of the Bandworld Legion of Honor. He was selected an “11-Alive Class Act” Teacher for 2000-2001. In May 2001, he was featured on the cover of “School Band and Orchestra Magazine.” In 2006, Mr. Gribble was nominated for the Disney Teacher of the Year Honors. Mr. Gribble has served as GMEA District 12 Band Chairman on two occasions and as the State Band Chairman for 2007-2008. In 2008, Mr. Gribble was named a “Claus Nobel Educator of Distinction” by the National Society of High School Scholars. In 2009, Mr. Gribble was selected by School Band and Orchestra magazine for their “50 Directors Who Make a Difference”. In 2013, Mr. Gribble was inducted into the American School Band Directors Association. Mr. Gribble was awarded the “Crystal Baton” award from the Gift of Music Foundation in May of 2018. That same year, he was a Grammy Award Teacher Quarter-Finalist.

Mr. Gribble served on the Executive Board of the National Band Association from 2011-2022. He also served on the Board of Directors for Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle corps from 2015-2021. Mr. Gribble has been a marching band show designer for bands in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina. Mr. Gribble operates “K.E.Y. Leadership Training” seminars for student leadership development. He has worked with middle school, high school, and university groups across the country to assist in developing their leadership programs. From 2018-2021, he served as an adjunct faculty member at Reinhardt University.

Scott Rush

Scott Rush

Scott Rush is the team lead for the “Habits” series published by GIA and currently serves as the conductor of the Charleston Wind Symphony. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and the University of South Carolina and is the former Director of Bands at Wando High School in Mount Pleasant, SC. Under his direction, the Wando Symphonic Band performed at the 2007 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and were BOA Grand National Finalists. Mr. Rush is active as a conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States and Canada. He is the author and/or co-author of sixteen highly touted books, some of which include: Habits of A Successful Band Director, Habits of a Successful Musician, Habits of a Successful Beginner Band Musician, Habits of a Successful Middle School Musician, Habits of a Successful Middle School Band Director, Habits of a Significant Band Director, for GIA Publications. In 2010, Mr. Rush was elected to the American Bandmasters Association. He currently serves as Past-President of the Servant Leadership Association for Music (SLAM).

Scott Rush

Scott Weiss

Scott Weiss is the Music Director and Conductor of the Aiken Symphony and the Director of Orchestras at the University of South Carolina School of Music. In demand internationally as a guest conductor, Scott has conducted recent performances with the orchestras of Shenzhen, Tianjin, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, and Nanchang and at major international venues including the Taipei National Theatre and Concert Hall, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Concert Hall in Beijing, and the Hangzhou Grand Theatre Concert Hall. Soloists he has recently shared the stage with include Elena Urioste, Angelo Xiang Yu, Zuill Bailey, Awadagin Pratt, John O’Conor, Marina Lomazov and Paul Jacobs.

Scott has several critically-acclaimed recordings on the Naxos Records and Summit Records labels. His latest offering is the world premiere recording of Nico Muhly’s Reliable Sources, released on the Cantaloupe Music label in October 2021. The piece is one of dozens of new works that Scott has commissioned from many of today’s leading composers, including Samuel Adler, Jennifer Higdon, Zhou Long, Cindy McTee and Joseph Schwanter.At the University of South Carolina, Dr. Weiss is the Sarah Bolick Smith Distinguished Professor of Music. In addition to conducting the USC Symphony Orchestra, Professor Weiss leads the master’s and doctoral programs in orchestral conducting at USC, and his studio is a destination for talented young conductors from around the world. He is frequently invited to conduct performances and teach masterclasses at leading conservatoires and music schools, including the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing), the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the University of Western Australia. Each summer, he teaches at the Los Angeles Conducting Workshop and Competition.

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina

Charleston, South Carolina was recently named the #1 tourist destination in the country by Travel & Leisure Magazine, and named by Conde Nast Traveler as the #1 city in the world.

Full of traditional Southern charm and hospitality, Charleston is known for its outstanding architecture with numerous antebellum houses and other notable colonial structures. The Charleston Historic District contains almost 1,500 significant buildings, many of which are listed as landmarks on the National Register.

Founded in 1670, Charleston is home to countless charming streets full of history, guided tours, and a host of tourist attractions. Nearby islands and beaches and a tropical climate make Charleston a particularly compelling city.

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