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Feb. 8, 2016 — The annual Crawford County-Allegheny College High School Band Festival will be held Friday and Saturday, February 12 and 13, with a closing concert at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in Shafer Auditorium at Allegheny College. Admission to the concert is free.

The festival, now in its 33rd year, will involve 142 high school students chosen by their directors to participate in the county-wide honor band. They will work under the direction of Lowell Hepler, director of bands and professor of music at Allegheny College. Armond Walter, director of bands at Meadville High School and a member of the Crawford County Band during his student days, will conduct one of the numbers at the closing concert.

The program will be chosen from a repertoire that includes “Rhythm of the Winds,” by Frank Erickson; “On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss,” by David Holsinger, conducted by Armond Walter; “Equilibrium,” by Michael Oare; “Runaway Circus Train,” by Erik Morales; “Allegro Barbaro,” by Antonin Dvorak; and “Colonel Bogey March,” by Kenneth Alford.

Participating bands and their directors are Cambridge Springs High School, Jeffrey Beltz; Cochranton High School, Carl Miller; Conneaut Area High School , Glenn Cameron; Maplewood High School, Jamie Gardner; Meadville Area High School, Armond Walter; Saegertown High School, Patrick Baldwin; and Titusville High School, Jeffrey Herwig.

Lowell Hepler has served as a guest conductor for honor bands ranging from County through All-State levels. Retired from his position as Principal Tuba with the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, he remains the Principal Tuba for the Lake Erie Ballet Company.

He has served as President of the Pennsylvania Collegiate Bandmasters Association and the Pennsylvania Chapter of Phi Beta Mu, Honorary Bandmasters Fraternity. He has also served as the Pennsylvania state chair of the College Band Directors National Association.

Hepler was the 2010 recipient of the Nu Chapter, Phi Beta Mu Bandmaster of the Year Award and, in 2013, of Allegheny College’s Julian Ross Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Armond Walter graduated from Meadville High School in 2005 and from Edinboro University in 2009. He received his master’s degree in wind conducting from Messiah College in 2015. He began teaching band, orchestra and music theory at Meadville High School in 2013.