By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – At the Kingwood Christian School band’s final rehearsal before taking the competition stage at Festival Disney in Orlando, Fla., band director Tyra Cutcher said a simple prayer.

“I said ‘Lord, I pray that you will show yourself to these students and through these students,’” Cutcher said.

When the Kingwood students performed on Friday, March 19, they impressed everyone at the festival.

Out of every band at the competition, which drew many groups from across the nation, Kingwood’s 19-member band was by far the smallest ensemble to perform at the Disney-sponsored event.

When performing a three-song concert consisting of “Darklands March,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “Solstice Dance,” Cutcher could tell the band members were giving it their all.

The three-member judging panel consisting of University of Notre Dame Director of Bands and music professor Dr. Kenneth Dye, Tennessee Tech University Director of Bands and music professor Joseph Hermann and Florida State University Orchestra Director and professor of conducting Dr. Alexander Jimenez could tell as well, and awarded the KCS band all superior ratings.

What came during the following day’s awards ceremony was a shock to the Alabaster group, and to most of the bands at the festival.

Out of every band at the event, the KCS band earned a Gold Mickey award recognizing the highest score in the entire competition, beating out exponentially larger bands from across the nation in the process.

“Our small band is made up of sixth to 12^th-graders and they compete against larger schools made up of mostly high school students,” KCS Educational Pastor Benny Cunningham wrote in an email. “Each year, they do very well and are recognized for it and we are proud. But this year they hit a home run!”

“When I heard that, I was honestly shocked,” Cutcher said, noting the KCS band is made up of six high-schoolers and 13 middle-schoolers. “It’s very difficult for a small band to get superior ratings, much less earn the highest score in the competition. That is unheard of.”

With a score of 97.7, the KCS band beat a symphonic band from Fort Hamilton High School in New York and a band from Gardner Edgerton High School in Kansas. Kingwood has a total enrollment of 209 students in grades six through 12, while Fort Hamilton and Gardner Edgerton have ninth through 12^th-grade enrollments of more than 4,000 and 1,400, respectively.

While at the festival, the KCS band also performed at the Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee, Fla., which is a resort for children facing life-threatening illnesses.

“We are so thankful and blessed by God to have this experience,” Cutcher said.