Draft:Virginia Marching Band Cooperative

The Virginia Marching Band Cooperative (VMBC) is a non-profit organization that focuses on promoting the art of marching band throughout Virginia.[1] They organize regional competitions in colaboration with local high schools, to bring high quality, marching band experience to all parts of the state. They also host annual state championships that any band within Virginia can participate in.

Classification and Adjudication

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Classes

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Bands are classified based on the number of students marching on the field. Alternates are not counted. Class sizes may ocassionally be adjusted based on the number of bands participating in that class.[2]

Groups Enrolled Students
Group 1 20 - 35
Group 2 36 - 50
Group 3 51 - 70
Group 4 71 - 90
Group 5 91 - 114
Group 6 115 and above

Adjudication

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A band's total score comes from 3 different captions: Music, General Effect, and Visual. The Percussion and Color Guard captions are not included in the final score. Within each caption, there are two subcaptions that are totalled together to produce the score of that caption.[3]

Caption Subcaption Score contribution Total
Music Ensemble Music 15.0 30.0
Individual Music 15.0
Visual Ensemble Visual 15.0 30.0
Individual Visual 15.0
General

Effect

GE Music 20.0 40.0
GE Visual 20.0

Each subcaption is scored by one judge. The only exception to this is at the state finals, where two judges score both GE subcaptions.

To produce the final score that is announced during the award ceremony, all scores are divided by 2, and 50 is added. For instance, a score of 85.025 would become 92.513. [3]

Championships

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The VMBC annually hosts their state championships that atract bands from alll over Virginia. This tradition began in 2018, and has been hosted at Liberty University ever since. Unlike all their other local competitions, their states championship has both a prelims round, and a finals round where all class levels have the opportunity of competing against each other. State championships are a full day event, begining in the early morning and ending close to midnight.

The Commonwealth Cup

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The Commonwealth cup is the trophy awarded to the states finals winner. As of 2024, only three bands have won this award.

Year Commonwealth Cup Winner
2018 James Madison High School, Vienna
2019 James Madison High School, Vienna
2021 James Madison High School, Vienna
2022 Bassett High School, Bassett
2023 Independence High School, Ashburn

References

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  1. ^ "About Us". VMBC. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  2. ^ "Championships". VMBC. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  3. ^ a b "Scores and Recaps". VMBC. Retrieved 2024-10-02.