Cheney High School Bands
Currently at Cheney High School there are two concert bands, two percussion ensembles, two jazz bands, pep band, and various other chamber ensembles to include brass choir, woodwind choir, sax quartet and more!
WIND ENSEMBLE
The Cheney High School Wind Ensemble is comprised of the top instrumental musicians at Cheney High School. Members from Percussion Ensemble 1 also perform with the Wind Ensemble. This ensemble performs at concerts throughout the year as well as travels once or twice to local festivals. Recently the Cheney High School Wind Ensemble has performed in concert with the Eastern Washington University Wind Ensemble. This is a fully auditioned ensemble with limited instrumentation.
SYMPHONIC BAND
The Symphonic Band at Cheney High School is the entry level concert band. This ensemble is used to transition students from Westwood Middle School and Cheney Middle School into what is expected of them on their instruments at the high school level. This ensemble performs at several concerts throughout the year. Members of both Percussion Ensemble 1 and Percussion Ensemble 2 perform with this ensemble as well.
PERCUSSION I
Percussion Ensemble 1 is comprised of a variety of musicians. Students in this ensemble are required to be a part of the Cheney High School Marching Band. This allows these students to continue working on their marching percussion technique and skills throughout September, October, and the beginning of November. In November these students transition into concert percussion as they prepare for regional solo and ensemble. This ensemble has made it to the state solo and ensemble festival by winning the regional festival in the percussion large division 8 out of the last 10 years. In 2016, they placed 2nd at the state solo and ensemble contest.
PERCUSSION II
Much like Symphonic Band for the wind players at the high school, the percussion 2 class is designed for students transitioning from middle school to the high school percussion environment. This is a percussion only class. These students focus on percussion fundamentals while performing as a percussion ensemble as well as performing with the Symphonic Band.
JAZZ ENSEMBLE I
Jazz Ensemble 1 is one of the most visible performing ensembles at Cheney High School. This group performs at several concerts a year as well as perform at several festivals and competitions. This group also gets asked to perform at local events and festivities to include Cheney Mayfest in the beginning of May. This group is auditioned every year in September. The standard jazz band instrumentation is used.
JAZZ ENSEMBLE II
This ensemble is the non-auditioned jazz band at Cheney High School. Like the jazz ensemble 1, this ensemble performs at many concerts, festivals, and competitions throughout the year. This ensemble varies in instrumentation from year to year and is open to anyone interested in jazz band that does not want to audition for jazz ensemble 1, or does not make it into that group. Concepts are taught in this ensemble to prepare students for jazz ensemble 1.
PEP Band
The pep band at Cheney High School is split into two seasons, football and basketball. During the football season, all members of the Cheney High School marching band make up the pep band. During basketball season, members of the jazz band are asked to participate in the basketball pep band. This ensemble creates a lot of the game day atmosphere for both our basketball and football teams. The pep band also gets asked occasionally to fill in for the Eastern Washington Pep Band as basketball games. This has occurred on an annual basis.