Cuyamaca College Band & Orchestra Festival

The Cuyamaca Band & Orchestra Festival is an event where school music ensembles perform and receive feedback from professional musicians to help them grow. Events like this are common for school music programs but the Cuyamaca Festival tweaks and expands on the traditional format of these festivals. Typically a school ensemble would perform for a panel of judges and receive a rating and sometimes also a clinic as an ensemble. For the Cuyamaca Festival the judges will not give ratings but instead record a tape with constructive comments, provide a 30 minute clinic to the ensemble and
have a 30 minute conversation with the teacher 1 on 1. In addition, after their performance the students will attend a masterclass on their instrument for 30 minutes. Additionally the students will receive a campus tour, attend performances of other schools and get to hear a concert featuring several of the masterclass teachers performing the audition music for
the 2025 California All State Band.