
The Durham High School Band is made up of over 100 members, ranging in age from fourteen to eighteen. The majority of the members have been under the direction of Ed Banes since fifth grade. Because we are a small school, the band serves as a concert band, a marching band, and a pep band. Every year they compete in the Oroville Festival, a marching competition. In 1995 they were moved up to level AA competition and received a first place trophy. Since then they have received a second and fourth place finish respectively. The band also competes at the Chico State Music Festival every year. Here the band averages between a 1 and a 2+ finish (this is actually very good). Because of the school's size, getting adequate practice time for the band is often quite difficult. While the majority of their competition practices at least twice a day for a total of three hours, they have one fifty minute rehearsal each morning. This is due to the fact that the members of the band are also involved in many other extra curricular activities, and practices outside of the normal band period would be extremely difficult.