Norwin wins Bands of America regional championship

The Norwin High School marching band won first place overall at the 2025 Bands of America Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship on Oct. 25 at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del.

The competition featured 30 high school bands from four states, including New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia and eight from Pennsylvania.

Norwin finished with a score of 87.95. The band also took home awards for outstanding music performance, visual performance and general effect, said Tim Daniels, the high school band director. Norwin secured the victory in the finals after being among the top 12 highest-scoring bands from the preliminary competition.

Kiski Area High School also had a strong showing, finishing second overall with a score of 86.575.

“It’s a great showing from Western Pennsylvania,” Daniels said.

History of success

This win marks the band’s second victory at this specific competition since 2019, and its 30th Bands of America Regional title, the most of any high school band in the country, Daniels said.

Daniels credited the students’ dedication.

“The band worked incredibly hard to get to this moment. The show has been in the planning stages for a year, and the performers have been working since June to get the show ready. Whether it was a 90-degree band camp day in August, or out in the recent cold weather, they are always here putting in 100%,” he said.

“It really is a community effort to prepare these students, raising funds to get them on the road, and to make sure that they have everything they need to be successful,” Daniels added.

Winning program

Norwin’s 2025 program, “What Do You See?,” was based on the idea of using a simple inkblot to uncover people’s perception of shapes, taking the audience on a journey through their own perception of what they see on the field.

Using inkblot imagery and an engaging musical score, the show encouraged viewers to determine for themselves what they saw, said Candice Lackey, a spokeswoman for the Norwin Band Aides, a booster group.

Throughout the show, Norwin juxtaposed concepts musically and visually, exploring darkness and light, openness and density, chaos and order, and movement and stillness.

“There were moments of perfect clarity and frenetic energy,” Lackey said.

Bands are judged by seven people who evaluate specific areas, such as music and visual performance proficiency, overall design and the effectiveness of that design. Performances can be between 6 and 10 minutes in length, Daniels noted.

“In our case, we have a team of designers that put together a brand new program each year, based on these requirements. We work to be innovative in our musical and visual choices, and bring something exciting to the table each year,” Daniels said.