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The Tucker Middle School band program is in its ninth year has set the standard of excellence for many years to come. Mr. Lawrence Jennings has been the director of bands since the opening of the school, and Ms. Min Kang became an associate director in 2008.
The 6th grade Cadet Band, 7th grade Concert Band, and the 8th grade Symphonic Band have received superior and excellent ratings at the Large Group Performance Evaluations consistently. This year all grade level bands will be participating in the Large Group Performance Evaluations during Music in Schools month of March.
All concert and symphonic band members are auditioned in the spring to perform concerts in the community, schools and the spring tours.
The Tucker Middle School band program’s top performing ensemble is the Jazz Ambassadors. The Ambassadors consists of 6th, 7th and 8th grade music students with outstanding musicianship. They represent the school, community and DeKalb County school instrumental music department. The symphonic band has been invited to perform at various venues not many middle school bands perform. To name a few, our TMS jazz band performed at Stone Mountain Park, Georgia State Capital, Georgia State University, National Educators Conference, the Fletcher Henderson Jazz Festival at Clark Atlanta University, Tucker Jazz Festival and received outstanding jazz band recognition and awards in 2007. They have competed in The All-American Music Festival in Orlando, Florida and won first place in its division as well. The TMS jazz ambassadors have performed at Underground Atlanta ,the DeKalb County Fine Arts Showcase and the Teacher of the Year Recognition Banquets. In addition, our jazz band recorded their first CD and performs for the in-house events such as PTA meetings, graduation commencement, car shows feeder schools and pep rallies.
The TMS drum line also performs as a regular feature at our football games, pep rallies and local churches. Tucker Middle School is one of the few schools with a performing Pep band that entertains the crowd at the football games on Saturdays. The pep band also performs annually for the Tucker Day Parade on Main Street.
The Tucker Middle School Band’s rising stars, 6th grade cadet band members have been invited to perform at the North DeKalb Mall in December annually. Last year, the 6th grade cadet band received all superior ratings at LGPE. Tucker Middle Symphonic band was the first Middle school band to perform at the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington DC 2012. The symphonic band, the orchestra and the chorus received a congressional proclamation from Congressman Hank Johnson. The music department regularly performs community services.