VALDOSTA — Scintilla Charter Academy Band Director, Albert Bussey announced this week: “We will have two students representing our band program in the 2025 District 8 Georgia Music Educators Association High School Honor Band; Mr. Samuel Ault (9th) and Mr. Preston Bennett (10th).”

On Saturday, Dec. 14, hundreds of high school band students from across South Georgia, traveled to Ware County High School in Waycross to audition for a spot in the 2025 GMEA honor bands. These young musicians were challenged to play, from memory, eight major scales and an extended chromatic scale, then play a lyrical solo piece and sight-read a piece of music for the very first time after studying it silently for only 30 seconds. The young musicians were judged on tone quality, note and rhythm accuracy and musicality. After all the students complete their auditions the scores are ranked from highest to lowest to fill an instrumentation for two concert bands.

On the high school level there is a 9th and 10th grade band and an 11th and 12th grade band. Bennett is a trombone player and  Ault is a flute player. These two young men are returning to represent SCA for the second year at this level. GMEA District 8 includes all the high schools in Ware, Lowndes, Pierce, Brantley, Atkinson, Charlton, Bacon, Camden, Appling, Glynn, Wayne, Telfair, Ben Hill, Jeff Davis and Coffee counties.