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

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

8th Grade All-State Band & Jazz Band

Please send errors or omissions to historian@nsbma.org