NNPS musicians perform for the community at Band Expo
Posted: October 9, 2025
Eighth grade musicians and high school marching bands showcased their talents for the entire community at the fourth annual Newport News Public Schools Band Expo on October 7 at Todd Stadium.
Student musicians from all over the school division were featured at the event, which was free and open to the public. The evening performance was the culmination of a day of learning and collaboration for the music students.
The annual performance event featured eighth graders from all middle schools performing with all of the high school marching bands on the National Anthem and marching bands from Denbigh, Heritage, Menchville, Warwick and Woodside high schools each performing their football game halftime shows.
Christian Wennin, a 2025 Menchville High School graduate and recipient of the 2025 NNPS and Newport News Education Foundation Wayne D. Lett Scholarship, served as guest conductor for the National Anthem. Wennin is currently majoring in music at Christopher Newport University and plans to become a music teacher.
A celebratory event for the community and music programs to join in their support of music educators and music students, the Band Expo is intended to foster enthusiasm for continued participation in music programs for all students, according to Katie SheehanSmith, supervisor of visual and performing arts.
"The Band Expo is a curricular learning field experience where eighth grade musicians spend the day alongside feeder high school programs, gaining a preview of what high school marching band has to offer," SheehanSmith said.
Students spent the afternoon working in sections led by high schoolers. They were taught basic marching techniques and band calls, and conducted field rehearsals to experience the differences between following a conductor from the podium and the classroom.
Students from different schools interacted as they were grouped at times by instrument and at times by middle school-high school feeder program. After a dinner break, all musicians took the field to perform the unified National Anthem.
"The community performance is the final piece of the Band Expo experience for the eighth graders, where they then get to be in the stands to experience the full field show of each band after working alongside them all afternoon," SheehanSmith said.
The evening's performance was recorded for TV and will air on NNPS-TV once it's edited. NNPS-TV can be seen on Cox Channel 47, Verizon Fios Channel 17, livestream on Roku and Apple TV, and online at nnpstv.com/webstream. The Expo will also be available on demand on the Telecom student YouTube channel (YouTube.com/nnpstelecom) (opens in a new window).
