In a historic and inspiring achievement, North Royalton High School’s band program has made headlines across the state with an extraordinary clean sweep at the 2025 OMEA State Band Adjudicated Event. For the first time in nearly two decades, every ensemble—Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, and Freshman Band—earned the coveted “1” SUPERIOR rating, the highest possible honor at the state level.
This accomplishment not only reflects the tireless work and musical excellence of the students but also the visionary leadership of the directors who have cultivated a culture of discipline, passion, and excellence within the program. North Royalton stands alone as the only school in Ohio this year to achieve 100% SUPERIOR ratings with four participating concert bands.
“What our band program continues to accomplish is incredible,” said Superintendent Michael Laub. “We talk about wanting to provide an elite experience with everything we do for our students - our band program clearly delivers that for our students and has done so for a very long time. Our students, directors and band boosters go above and beyond, and it certainly shows. I couldn't be more proud!”
The achievement is particularly notable for its rarity. While individual groups may earn top honors in a given year, a complete program sweep like this is a significant accomplishment.
“We are proud to have all four bands not only qualify to participate at the State Level, but also to earn a Superior Rating at the state level. This takes a tremendous amount of work from the directors as well as the students. We are proud that all bands worked hard leading up to the event and had a truly superior performance this past weekend. This weekend the North Royalton High School Band didn’t just maintain our Tradition of Excellence, but instead we took it a step further,” said Band Director, David Vitale.
The Bands performed a variety of repertoire this past weekend, and the Wind Ensemble even performed an original composition that was composed by Director David Vitale. This sophisticated piece, “Echoes of Joy” performed alongside “Under the Admiral’s Flag” and Johan de Meij’s “Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Rings - Mvt. 1 Gandalf” was the repertoire performed by the Wind Ensemble this past weekend in Class AA - a class reserved for the very highest ensembles playing college level and professional repertoire. Vitale comments, “The repertoire for this weekend was very challenging and the students worked hard all year. This performance was the culmination of everything we have been working on all year long.”
The OMEA State Band Adjudicated Event was hosted at North Royalton High School the weekend of May 3, and North Royalton will continue to host the event into the future. As the Band wraps up the year, the final performances of the year will be the “Band-a-Rama” on Wednesday May 21 at 7 p.m. in the HS Gym 1, and the Broadview Heights Memorial Day Parade on Monday May 26 at 9 a.m.