Arcanum High School Marching Band was led by director Heather Marsh-Myers in a stellar fall season. Arcanum Band had the highest 2021 season score of any Class C or Class B band in the entire state of Ohio, often outscoring much larger schools. At State marching band finals, Marsh-Myers’s band received straight superior ratings, the highest possible score.
Photo courtesy of Marsh-Myers
Heather Marsh-Myers
Photo courtesy of Marsh-Myers
Director Marsh-Myers and her band pose at Arcanum High School.
Photo courtesy of Marsh-Myers
Staff report
ARCANUM — Heather Marsh-Myers, band director for the Arcanum-Butler Local School District, will join band directors from across the country on Jan. 1 in the annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses® Rose Parade.
A custom-designed animated float will lead a “marching band of band directors” up to 300 strong from across the country. The Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation, based in Pickerington, Ohio, is the sponsoring organization behind the project. The foundation was created to recognize and carry on the work of the late Mike Sewell, who dedicated his life to the school and community music programs in Pickerington and the Central Ohio area for more than 38 years.
The parade entry will convey the theme, “We teach music. We teach life.” The extraordinary dedication and accomplishments of band directors are well known to their students, to parents, and to school teachers and administrators. No matter where they teach and work — public and private schools, colleges and universities, the military, community bands — dedicated music educators and leaders work long hours to not only teach and direct music, but to teach life itself. Students’ lives in particular are positively changed by motivational leaders who have taught, inspired and mentored them.
Heather Marsh-Myers is in her sixth year as band director of the Arcanum-Butler Local School District. Previously, she was the assistant band director at Tippecanoe High School in Tipp City, Ohio, for nine years.
During her tenure at Arcanum, the band has excelled, receiving multiple state superior ratings in both marching and concert bands. Marsh-Myers is actively involved in the music community, both locally and with the Ohio Music Education Association. She is past president and secretary of OMEA District 11, has served on the OMEA music selection committee, and has also participated as the band contributor to the OMEA “Triad” magazine for music educators. Marsh-Myers has also been appointed and holds a state position as a member of the OMEA Adjudicated Events Committee as the Band Affairs chair.
In 2019, she was selected to the Ohio Department of Education Music Standard revision committee, helping to pen the new standards for music education in Ohio. In addition, she performs locally with the Greenville Municipal Band and the Troy Civic Band. In 2018, Marsh-Myers was honored to be named a quarter-finalist for the Grammy Foundation Music Educator Award, and in 2021, she was named Arcanum-Butler school district Teacher of the Year.
Complete details on the project are available on the Saluting America’s Band Directors website, BandDirectorSalute.org.
