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Justin Schwertfeger looks forward to more firsts

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The St. Clairsville High School marching band had an exciting season this past year, and the band director looks forward to more in the future.

Justin Schwertfeger, an Ohio Valley native, has been the band director at the high school for the past 12 years. He said he has always had a calling for music and himself played the trumpet in the band while attending Brooke High School.

“I’ve always enjoyed music … I just love it,” he said, adding that he originally went to college for physics and engineering before switching over to music.

Schwertfeger said his main goal is to give students an “awesome experience” regardless of the activity.

“Whether it’s competition or going on a cool trip or like this year going to Grand Nationals was just an awesome experience for the kids. In the past we’ve gone to Disney World, New York City, just different venues,” he said.

The school band had a couple of big moments this past year as students performed at the Buckeye Invitational at Ohio State University and at the Bands of America Grand National Championship in November at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. It was the first time in school history the school band had performed at the stadium.

“This past year was the first time we took the band to compete in nationals. It’s a national competition held in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is bands from all over the country. That was a really amazing experience, not only for our kids but for our parents, staff and the community. It was really cool to see them be a part of that. We’ve competed in the Marching Band World for the last couple years. We do concert band and we have jazz band,” he said.

“Things like that, to give a great musical experience while they’re here is my biggest goal. … In the four years the kids are in band, I’d like them all to have a cool experience and get to go to a national competition or go to Ohio State, Disney or get to do something special.”

During the national championship in Indianapolis, the St. Clairsville marching band placed 18th competing against more than 30 schools from around the country.

“We were middle ground. It’s crazy. At our state competition in Ohio, we scored the highest score you can get — we were one of only five bands. On the national level, we were 18th out of 30-some bands, which is still really good. Just the kids and parents seeing the bands, bands from Texas, Oklahoma. Our high school has around 500-600, these schools have 4,000-5,000. So it’s a totally different ballgame,” he said.

Over the past couple years, Schwertfeger has implemented a few new programs including an indoor percussion and indoor color guard. The two new groups were slated to participate in their first competition earlier this month; however, it was canceled due to the winter storm. He said a new competition is slated for later this month in Akron, Ohio.

“We started (the two new groups) during the pandemic because the pandemic made everything different and we kind of had to prioritize what we were doing. During the 2020 year we couldn’t travel to away games, we couldn’t go to any competitions, we weren’t on a school bus once the entire year, which was a really weird thing because we were usually on a bus a couple times a month. So we were able to form some new ensembles and try different things. Some of them have stuck, like the indoor groups. We started an offshoot of our jazz group called Second Line which focuses on the New Orleans tradition of jazz and that’s been a fun group to do for the kids,” he said. Second Line is “more of an advanced group to show off the talents of students as they play more difficult music.”

The school band includes a variety of groups such as the marching band, which performs at football games and in parades, and the high school concert band – a class offered at the school where students “build musicianship, work on music and is the heartbeat of everything” else students do.

“Everything else is kind of an offshoot of everything we learn in band,” he said.

Additionally, there is the jazz band, Second Line group, indoor percussion, color guard and in the winter students compete in winter guard and the solo ensemble. All the groups enable students to practice and build their talents, learn to play instruments and showcase their abilities.

Schwertfeger said he plans to continue to grow the band program, creating more ways for students to learn and thrive.

“I feel like the more years I’m here, we’re always growing and trying something new like adding the indoor groups or second line groups. We’re always trying to not reinvent the wheel but come up with new ideas and ensembles to enrich what we already have going, the core music that we’re trying to do,” he said.

He said running the band department takes teamwork and relies on the efforts of all to work cohesively.

“It takes a village with parents, staff that we hire on, administration and the kids work incredibly hard. The way we do our marching band, everyone has their duty and what they need to do to help the group. Without that we wouldn’t even be able to leave the school without everyone pitching in and doing something,” he said.

Schwertfeger said working as the band director has been a rewarding venture that he looks forward to continuing the work for many years.

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