In April, Radnor High School earned several awards in the fields of music and dance.  
The Radnor High School concert band competed at the Festivals of Music in Boston on April 7th.  The band goes to this Boston festival every four years, which gives every Radnor band student an opportunity to attend over their high school career.  At the competition, every band receives an overall performance rating, and some bands may earn the best overall band or best spirit award. The spirit award, also known as the “Espri De Corps,” is given to the band with the most respect, kindness, cooperation, and general neatness.  
At the festival, both of Radnor’s concert bands gave great performances; one band earned a superior, the highest possible rating.  As Mr Drew states, “For all my groups, we have never gotten higher scores before.” Furthermore, this year marks the first time Radnor High School has ever won the spirit award.  To individual band members, this award may not carry much weight, but to Maria, Mr. Drew, and the entire staff behind the band, this award demonstrates more than any performance award ever could. “As an educator,” Mr Drew states, “the award is a more covenant representation of the program’s spirit.  It is a representation of how the students act and react, and a representation of their demeanor. I’m all about showing respect. Part of the experience of the trip is about learning respect and responsibility, and all of this is shown in the Espri De Corps award.”
The honors jazz band also recently gave an outstanding performance at the Cavalcade Regional Championships.  The jazz band performs at various regional competitions where it receives a performance rating and certain sections of the band, or soloists, can also receive awards.  The Cavalcade championships is the biggest and most competitive of all the competitions. Under the direction of Mr. Drew, the Radnor jazz band successfully earned a superior rating, the highest of four possible ratings, and received the highest numerical score out of any jazz band in its class.  For this outstanding achievement, the band earned the overall champion award. The trumpet section also received a section award, while soloists Aaron Tachau, trumpet player, and Alex Paino, vibraphone player, received individual awards.
Finally, under the direction of Maria Drew, the color guard performed outstandingly well at their most recent competition.  Sydney Brumfield describes color guard performances as “basically dance with 10 pound metal objects thrown in. Most people will never understand it but it’s something I love.” Their performance not only earned them first place in the competition, but caused their national placement to jump from 17th to 7th.  It is exceedingly difficult for a team already in the national top 20 to jump ten places, but through their hard work and passion they found success.
While there are differences in each of these exceptional performances, the Radnor Band and Color Guard proved that the students of Radnor not only strive for success, but also find their passion and spirit in doing so.