They’re the best of the best. Fort Mill musicians will prove it in Washington, D.C.

With high school bands in Fort Mill, it can be hard keeping track of accolades and understanding how big a deal they are.

This one is a big deal.

The Fort Mill High School Wind Symphony is heading to Washington, D.C., for The President’s Cup, an invitation only festival for high school wind ensembles. Only eight bands were chosen. Fort Mill High is the only one from South Carolina.

“We’re honored to be one of those bands selected, and we’re looking forward to playing,” said band director John Pruitt.

The band will play March 31 at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas, Va. Bands will get clinic instruction and master classes by instrument. Music professors from Furman and Winthrop universities, along with the University of South Carolina, will travel and rehearse with the band. The third annual event is sponsored by the U.S. Army Band.

Each participating band will perform its own music, along with a song written for the bands just for the event. The feel will be considerably different from some of the better known public performances in Fort Mill.

“This is the most advanced musicians in the band,” Pruitt said. “They’re mostly seniors and some juniors. We have three concert bands, so when you see the marching band you’re seeing all the musicians in one big program. These will be the top 50 students or so.”

Event organizers reached out to Fort Mill High after the school performed at a national festival. Bands had to submit a recording. Two shorter pieces performed at the event join “Symphonic Metamorphosis” by Paul Hindemith, which runs about 20 minutes.

Senior Kaarin Pidge, a trombonist, expects a different vibe on the March 29-April 2 trip compared to others in her four years performing.

“This is really special because it’s a lot smaller of a group,” she said. “It’s for a more prestigious sort of audience. It’s something that people don’t really, normally, pay attention to, but to us it’s really special.”

Bassoon player and senior Ellery Aschenbrenner said the city itself is a big draw, too.

“We get to go to our nation’s capital and play some of the best music we’ve ever played, for a really awesome audience,” he said.

The entire band program at Fort Mill High has about 180 musicians. They had 21 All-State and 73 region or All-State performers this year. The band has a slew of state marching band titles and even forgoes some state finals to compete in regional events, as it will up to the point where a third high school opens in Fort Mill.

That move will reduce sizes at Fort Mill and Nation Ford High School, another program with a long list of accolades since it opened a decade ago. While some may have worried the strong band tradition would be hurt by that split, both schools have thrived. Something Pruitt expects again when the district opens its third high school.

“I think a few years from now we’ll have three really good band programs,” he said. “It’s a really great area for music education. There’s no reason we shouldn’t.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2017 at 6:24 PM with the headline "They’re the best of the best. Fort Mill musicians will prove it in Washington, D.C.."