The Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association (more commonly known as VBODA) is an organization of high school, middle school, and elementary school band and orchestra directors within the Commonwealth of Virginia, whose mission is to help promote opportunities of music education to K-12 students. Many of the events that the VBODA organizes schools from around Virginia to compete with each other, and to give outstanding individual student musicians a chance to work with renowned conductors around the United States. The VBODA is the primary arbiter for various band and orchestra events throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Organization
The VBODA is a subsidiary of the Virginia Music Educators Association and MENC: The National Association for Music Education. The VBODA itself has an executive board, which consists of a President, President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, Middle School Representative, String Representative, Manual Editor, Manual Distribution Manager, and Marching Festival Chairman. The VBODA has 16 districts which are run by the executive board, and are under the supervision of a district representative. All executive board members and district representatives are band or orchestra directors of schools throughout Virginia.
VBODA Sponsored Events and Awards for School Ensembles
State Marching Band Festival
The State Marching Band Festival is held in five different school sites throughout the Commonwealth, which are the West, Central, East, Northeast, and Southeast. Most schools in each of the competition sites are roughly located in their respective region within Virginia. Groups are then classified by the marching band's number of playing members (winds + percussion), from 1A (smallest, 50 or fewer members) to 5A (largest).
Unlike many other band competitions, there are no awards for 1st place, etc., but every band receives a rating of I (Superior); II (Excellent); III (Good); IV (Fair); or V (Poor). In "Olympic Festival" format, a panel of five judges rates each band. The highest and the lowest ratings from individual judges are removed before determining the band's final rating. An example would be if a band receives one I rating, three II ratings, and one III rating; the I and III would be removed, giving the band a final rating of II, which is the average of the other three judges who all gave the band a II.
District Concert Band Festival
This event is held typically in the first couple of weekends in March. Unlike the State Marching Band Festival where there are five sites spread out throughout the region, the Concert Band festival is held at least one site for each district, because more groups typically perform at this event. Many high schools have two or three concert bands and thus bring each group to the festival. A very large amount of middle schools also bring their bands to this event as well.
Each band is classified by the grade of music they are playing, which ranges from I (easy) to VI (hard). Most high school bands play music that range from grade IV to VI; middle school bands tend to play music in the grade II or III category, and some middle school bands with a high degree of talent play at grade IV.
In the concert band festival, most bands choose to play three pieces in an auditorium. The repertoire always consists of one march, one piece from an overture or suite, and one piece of their choice. A panel of three judges then grades the group a rating from I to V, similar to the way judges give ratings at the State Marching Festival. After the concert, the band will go to a different room to sightread a piece. The piece is always two grade levels below the repertoire they played at the concert (A band that plays Grade VI in the concert plays a Grade IV in the sightreading), unless it is a Grade II or I band who would play a beginning level piece. The sightreading judge then assigns the band a rating from I to V.
Some bands choose not to do sightreading, and perform only in the concert. By doing so, they are to prepare four pieces (one march, one overture/suite, and two other pieces of the band's choosing at the same level). During the festival, the band will still play three pieces like other bands who do sightreading because of time constraints. The three pieces are chosen in this order. First, the march will be played. Of the remaining three pieces, the judges (about a week before the festival) get to pick one of the three remaining pieces, and the band chooses the third piece of the remaining two after the judges pick.