PHOTO: Harwood drummer Emmett Lisai performs at Battle of the Bands 2022. File photo by Gordon Miller.
Harwood Union High School’s music program presents its fourth annual Battle of the Bands on Friday, October 24, at 7 p.m. in the Harwood auditorium. Newly branded as Sonic Futures Battle of the Bands + Music Summit, this event is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for student musicians in Vermont.
Created by Harwood’s music department, Sonic Futures is a music education project that bookends the school year with performance opportunities for Vermont student musicians and bands. The year launches with the fall music summit and battle of the bands and concludes with a spring youth music showcase at Higher Ground.
Every production aspect of the fall Battle of the Bands and Music Summit is run by the students, including show hosting, producing a multi-cam live stream and light and sound operation.
“The competing student bands from central and northern Vermont will spend an afternoon working with celebrated Vermont producers and songwriters, Jer Coons, Cintia Lovo, and Eric George,” explained Harwood music director Brian Boyes. Both competing and non-competing students attended workshops on music business with Matt Rogers (program director for The Flynn), songwriting and album production with producer-songwriter Jer Coons and workshops on lead guitar with Bob Wagner (guitarist for Kat Wright).
“As a result, each band walks away from the event with the necessary tools and resources to build out their brand and book future performances,” Boyes said.
The winning band will be awarded a full-day professional recording session with Jer Coons at his jer&co studio. The top three acts all earned a spot to perform at Sonic Futures: Youth Music Showcase at Higher Ground in the spring of 2026.
The education reach of this project extends not only to Harwood students, but also to student musicians from across central and northern Vermont. Harwood’s partnership with UVM’s music education program provides their preservice music teachers the opportunity to shadow and help support the event. “This is an incredibly unique learning opportunity that previously has not been available to Vermont’s future music educators,” Boyes pointed out.
Sonic Futures is designed to be free – or as low-cost as possible – for students. This year’s event is made possible in part by the Harwood Music Program, the Mad River Valley Rotary Club and Winooski Valley Music Educators Association.
The Battle of the Bands + Music Summit is a one-of-a-kind event that brings together student bands from across Vermont for an afternoon and evening of:
- Industry Workshops (i.e. songwriting, sound engineering, music business, etc.).
- Band coaching sessions with top Burlington musicians and producers.
- Professional production (multi-cam live stream, photos, and audio recording) run by Harwood media students.
- Performance opportunities, including a chance to win a full-day professional recording session and spots at our spring showcase at Higher Ground.
Tickets are available at the door: $5 students | $10 adults | $15 family.
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