Spring Band Festival

Bands are invited to register and join us for a clinic session during the day with a guest clinician, and return to participate in an evening concert. At this concert, all of the bands of the day will perform for each other.

This event has the capacity to host 7 total performing ensembles. Those clinic / performance time slots will be given to the first 7 ensembles that register via the online form linked above.  

The evening concert is tentatively set to begin at 6:00pm in the North County High School auditorium

​Admission to the evening concert is as follows:

Adults: $3

Students: $2

Performers and Directors: $0

Senior Citizens: $0

North County Students: $0

We are thrilled to announce that our guest clinician for 2026 is Ms. Lisa Cowan!

Lisa Cowan’s day job is teaching in the Parkway School District in St. Louis, MO as the Director of Bands at Southwest Middle School. Her duties there include every facet of Band for students grades 6-8. Currently in her 20th year of teaching, Mrs. Cowan’s career has included both middle school and high school positions, with responsibilities including marching band, concert band, jazz band, beginning band classes, virtual beginning band classes and even an in-person virtual hybrid foreign language class (interesting story - just ask!)

Mrs. Cowan also serves as the marketing chair/social media content creator for the Saint Louis Wind Symphony, where she also plays flute/piccolo/keyboards/whatever is needed for the concert cycle. Mrs. Cowan has also recently presented sessions for professional development opportunities regarding solo and small ensemble literature, vibrato pedagogy, and whatever else people will let her talk about, really. Also, she has no idea that she’s over 40, so she marched in the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year as a member of the Band Directors Marching Band, which was the second time in the Macy’s Parade - the first one being 2001 with the Missouri State University Pride Marching Band. She’s also been accepted to join this group again for the Rose Parade in January of 2026. 

Mrs. Cowan is a Kansas City native, but lived in Springfield, MO while pursuing her undergraduate degree (BME, Missouri State 2004) and she completed her first graduate degree (MME, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 2006) after moving to St. Louis. Mrs. Cowan just received a second master’s degree (EdS, Lindenwood University 2025.) She now lives in St. Louis with her husband (Nick) and daughter (Elizabeth) with Nick’s children (Porter, Jessie) living nearby while they attend college.