Philosophy Statement
WGI Winds stands out by offering unique opportunities that empower and excite students. These opportunities combine music education with various visual means, creating a one-of-a-kind experience.
WGI Winds is a program that aims to supplement, not replace, the traditional scholastic concert, jazz, and chamber ensembles. It’s designed to enhance and enrich the fundamental pillars of any scholastic music education program.
At WGI, we hold a strong belief that providing young musicians with diverse performance opportunities can elevate music education quality, enrich the student experience, and ignite the passion in the next generation of performers and music educators.
WGI Winds presents marching ensembles of any instrumentation in the same performance environment as indoor color guard and percussion ensembles. As one of the world’s largest and most influential marching arts organizations, WGI is bringing the same exciting competitive and educational opportunities to students in the winds section in support of the total band program.
By creating WGI Winds, the legacy of excellence has an outlet for a high quality performance experience. Students are judged by the most skilled adjudicators working in the marching arts today while sharing their love of music and motion under the guiding principle of an educationally sound scoring system.
WGI Sport of the Arts exists to provide a venue for young people to achieve the extraordinary through performance and competition. WGI Winds is a natural extension of an already existing indoor color guard and percussion ensemble divisions.
There are two levels of classification: Independent and Scholastic. Independent groups are mostly self-organized and funded, except those groups affiliated with colleges and universities. The independent class has no age limit. Scholastic ensembles are programs that compete on behalf of their school.
For both Independent and Scholastic classes, WGI offers competitive divisions of A Class, Open Class and World Class. This will allow ensembles to compete and be compared with other groups at a similar skill level. Ensembles in A Class use a beginners skill set, Open Class has an intermediate skill set and World Class an advanced skill set.
The WGI competitive season begins in February and finishes in April at the Winds World Championships.
