Adjudication
The Union City Invitational judges are well-established experts in the music education, marching and pageantry field with their educational philosophy and background taken into consideration as much as their career accomplishments. Bands receive recorded evaluation and score sheets from each judge. The emphasis is on the input the judge offers into the band’s program via the recorded evaluation. The UCI adjudication system is based on TBA Marching band Evaluation System. We us a (6) person adjudication panel using all of the sheets, the three (3) music captions receive 200 points each with the Visual Performance Individual and the Visual Performance Ensemble scores averaged for a possible 200 points and the Visual Effect caption receiving the other 200 points. The final score is achieved by multiplying the total points earned by .10. You can see detailed information about this system as well as sample sheets at this TBA link. http://www.tennesseebandmasters.org/marching-band/
Each of the Finalist Bands will be invited to a 20 minute critique with the judges panel. 10 Minuets for Music and 10 Minuets for Visual. Our judges are chosen specifically for the ability to participate in a constructive critique environment. Past adjudicators since 2016 include: Gino Capriani, Damon Padilla, KC Perkins, Joel Denton, Tim Allen, Christopher Lester, Julie Davila, Megan Feltes, Stephen Ferguson, Jeremy Frey, Carl Eppler, Kent Hinsaw, Scott Koter, Neil Konouchi, David McGrath, Albert Nguyen, Tim Pierce, Ken Snoeck, and W. Dale Warren.
Classification
Bands are classified by the number of MUSICIANS (Winds and Percussion) for Preliminary Competition.
Competitors moving on to the evening’s Finals competition will compete for Finals Placement regardless of class.
- Class A 1 - 29 Musicians
- Class AA 30 - 50 Musicians
- Class AAA 51 - 69 Musicians
- Class AAAA 70 - 105 Musicians
- Class AAAAA 106 or More Musicians
We do not announce or publish band classifications before or during events so that no one, including judges, has a preconceived expectations of a band’s performance based on class. The adjudicators are to judges on what they hear and see without regard to classification.
Preliminary Competition
Prelim performance times are scheduled based on postmark date (we also accept faces and electronic entries) of application with the earlier postmark receiving the later performance time.
Finals Competition
Finalist bands will be announced at the conclusion of the Preliminary Awards Ceremony. The top 10 scoring bands, regardless of class, will advance to the evening’s Finals Competition. If a Class Champion is not among the highest scoring bands advancing to Finals, they will perform at Finals in exhibition. Performance order is determined by a “Top 5/Bottom 5” draw. The top 10 scoring Finalist Bands will get a 20 minute critique session with the adjudication panel during the dinner break.