The concert and symphonic bands from Richmond Hill High and Richmond Hill Middle schools spent the weekend performing at the Georgia Music Educators Association’s annual District 1 band and orchestra performance evaluations at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah. Concerts were heard Saturday and Sunday from schools all over southeast Georgia.
Each concert and symphonic band received one of the following scoring rates:  superior, excellent, good, fair and poor.  Richmond Hill Middle School’s sixth-grade band received an overall “excellent” award; their concert band received an overall “superior” award and the Wildcat Wind’s (symphonic) Band received an overall “superior” rating.  The middle school’s director is Alisha Bowden.   
Richmond Hill High School’s concert and symphonic bands both received “superior” ratings.  The concert band performed “The Chimes of Liberty, Goldman/arr.Custer – Adagio – David Holsinger and Incantations – Robert Smith”.  The Symphonic Band, playing Level VI music, performed the following program:  “The Dauntless Battalion-Sousa/arr.Glover,” “Lord of the Rings, Movement 1 (Gandalf) – Johann de Meij” and “Scootin’ on Hardrock! – David Holsinger.”
“I am extremely proud of all my students and all the students of festival … the high school’s concert and symphonic bands performed extremely challenging music and did a terrific job,” said Richmond Hill High School band director Dr. Daniel Kiene.
Through evaluations, the festival promotes middle and high school music programs to develop better skills expressed in performance and to offer students and teachers the opportunity to see and hear the work of other schools throughout the area.  
The evaluations procedure is to critique both the individual student and the groups’ sight-reading abilities and provide an invaluable opportunity for students to learn from other groups and motivate beyond the ordinary classroom setting.  
The festival hosted 40 plus bands from both middle and high school level.