Directed by Frank Phillips, the 2000/01
West Milford Township High School Highlander Band consists
of approximately 120 members, including musicians, a color
guard, and pipe corps members. The Highlander Band strive
for a high level of musical excellence and are always a
pleasure to observe. Our band is unique as we currently
have ten bagpipers that accompany the band during
performances. The West Milford High School Highlander band
are truly the Sights and Sounds of
Excellence.
Included on this web page is general
information about the band, a calendar of events, messages
from Mr. Phillips and information from the Band Parents
Association. We will try to keep you updated so that most
current information concerning the band and related band
activities can be found here.
The Value of a Musical
Education
For centuries, music and art have been recognized as
disciplines, on equal footing with mathematics, language, and
science in regard to the development of mental processes.
Recent research has shown that the study of music and musical
performance actively involves more of the domains of the
brain then any other discipline. Instrumental music,
particularly in an ensemble such as band or orchestra, is the
purest form of mental activity. It requires more of the
brain to be utilized, both right and left brain functions,
than any activity we experience in formal education. Dealing
with the demands of ensemble performance and individual
performance simultaneously requires that the performers
manipulate visual symbolic information, interpret visual
instructions from a conductor, analyze and synthesize aural
information being received constantly, exhibit manual skill
with the instrument, regulate their volume level and style of
playing in concert with several other performers, and many
other factors that all combine to become "making music."