NSBA Convention

NSBA hosts an annual convention and clinic each year in early March.  Directors are invited to attend as an ongoing professional development opportunity to learn from area experts in all areas of band performance.  Early conventions moved to different communities around the state, hosted by either a college or secondary school institution.  Eventually, the NSBA convention settled in Lincoln, hosted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Since the first NSBA Spring Convention in 1963, ensembles from across the state have been invited to perform for the membership.  Bands are typically asked to perform repertoire from a variety of different grade levels.  Ensembles are selected through a blind recorded audition process by a panel established by the Immediate Past President.  Most years, selected ensembles include a middle school band, high school band, jazz band, a collegiate group, and the Nebraska Intercollegiate Honor Band.  Performances are typically held in Kimball Recital Hall on the UNL campus, but were hosted at the Graduate Hotel in 2024 and 2025 due to renovations at Kimball Hall.

Click to access the Convention Literature Database

NSBA Concert Band Festival

The NSBA Concert Band Festival was initially held in 1994 as an educational event for bands across the state. The purpose of the festival at its inception was to “expose students and directors to nationally recognized band evaluators and clinicians from across the country and to give them an opportunity to play and receive valuable comments from these clinicians” (NSBA President Linda Donohue, 1995).  The goals for this non-competitive event remain to foster improvement in ensembles, encourage directors to find and program higher quality repertoire, and to give students the opportunity to perform in one of the outstanding concert halls in Nebraska.  The event was hosted at Kimball Hall on the UNL campus for its first several years, but has also been held at several other venues across Nebraska over the years.

Click to view the State Concert Band Festival Programs

NSBA Marching Band Contest

The Pershing Marching Festival starting in 1958 quickly became the premier marching contest in the early days of Nebraska marching band history.  When the Pershing Auditorium floor would no longer accommodate the larger bands and the newer “Corps Style” of marching a committee comprised of directors Ron Dalton, Jim Johnson, and Larry Marik worked together to lay the groundwork for a new state-wide marching contest sponsored by NSBA.

The first NSBA Marching Band Contest was held in 1983 at UNL, and had 42 participating bands being adjudicated by a four judge panel.  Through the years the NSBA State Marching Band Festival has been held in various locations throughout the state including Memorial Stadium at UNL, Hastings College, UNK, UNO, Bellevue East, Bellevue West, Omaha Northwest, and currently hosted at Buell Stadium at Millard South, Kearney High School, and Seacrest Field at Lincoln East.  Additionally, in 1994 the “Old West” marching band festival in Scottsbluff was a sanctioned third NSBA site for a few years.

More information can be found at this link

Marching Band Festival & Competition Awards History

NSBA Jazz Band Contest

NSBA 8th Grade All-State Band and Jazz Band

The NSBA 8th Grade All-State Band was first held in January, 2000, on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Kearney, with Dr. Gary Davis conducting.  The band was made up of 81 students representing 23 different schools.  UNK hosted the event through 2016, when it was moved to the recently opened Kearney High School.  A Jazz Band was added in 2019, under the direction of Roger Groth.  Students are selected for the All-State Groups through a competitive audition process.

8th Grade All-State Programs Archive

History of All-State Guest Clinicians

Please send errors or omissions to historian@nsbma.org