King Philip Wins at MICCA
The King Philip Symphony Band won its sixth consecutive gold medal for "superior" performance at the Massachusetts Instrumental and Choral Conductors Association Festival last Friday. As a result, both the Symphony Band and the KP North Seventh Grade Band, which also took gold, will be performing Saturday, April 10, at Boston's Symphony Hall in the "Stars at Symphony." The KP North Seventh Grade Band will perform at 11:40 AM and the KP Symphony Band will perform at 3:00 PM.
The Symphony Band, which requires auditions for membership, lead off a parade of gold and silver medals for all eight of the KP music groups made up of over 300 students in grades 7-12 performing over three days at the Festival.
On Friday, April 2, in addition to the Symphony Band's gold, both the Eighth Grade Band from King Philip North and the High School Concert Band earned silver medals for an "excellent" performance.
On Saturday, April 3, the KP North Seventh Grade Band received a Gold Medal for its performance in Hopkinton.
On Sunday, April 4, the KP Regional High School Chorus won a silver medal for its "excellent" performance in Norwood.
The MICCA Festival was held in western and eastern parts of Massachusetts over 3 days. Over 120 groups from throughout the state participated. Medals are given to the participating ensembles by a distinguished panel of music educators, who discuss the fine points of each performance with the students. Taped comments are also given to each performing group.
Other MICCA awards include a bronze medal for a "good" performance. A medal of merit is given for a fair performance, and a participation medal is given to groups requesting comments only, are lacking, or are disqualified.
MICCA reserves the gold medal for groups that achieve a standard of excellence recognized on the national level, and students are invited to perform in a national concert venue, either Symphony Hall or Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.
The Saturday Stars at Symphony celebration begins at 10 AM and is open to the public all day as groups share the stage in thirty minute intervals Choruses, Orchestras and middle school bands as well as high school bands earning a gold medal at the MICCA festival achieve this honor.
### 4/6/2004