KEEPING THE BEAT Dalton drummer to play with All-Ohio State Fair Band
ARCHIVE PHOTOS BY LISA McGINTY | LMc Photography
By ARIEL STAHLER
Gazette & News writer
It’s fair season. Along with the food, exhibitions, contests, rides and games, a big draw for fair lovers is the music.
A Dalton High School musician will be a part of entertaining the crowds at the top fair in the state. Noah Michaels will be performing with the All-Ohio State Fair Band.
The Dalton junior said he is excited to be selected as a percussionist with the group for the 2023 Ohio State Fair.
“I am looking forward to all the cool experiences we get to have,” Michaels said. “There are a lot of performances that we get to go to throughout the time. There’re also a couple of performances with the alumni band and that will be cool to have a bigger band than we usually would be playing with. It should be just a fun experience overall.”
Michaels started playing percussions when he was around 8 years old. The upcoming school year will mark his third year with Dalton’s drumline. Michaels said he had looked into auditioning for the AOSFB in the past, but this was the year he decided to complete the audition.
According to the All-Ohio State Fair Band’s website, the band was founded by Jack Wainwright in 1925 and it was then known as the All-Ohio Boys’ State Fair Band. Brian W. Dodd is the current director. Members are selected to the band through an audition process.
Students do not play during the audition, as it is an audition process through recommendations from school band directors and student essays on previous experience.
The band members rehearse at the Rhodes Center in Columbus from July 22-25 to learn over 60 pieces of concert music, as well as several marches. Throughout the run of The Ohio State Fair from July 26-Aug 6, the band will perform nearly 90 concerts. The musicians follow a rigorous schedule during the fair. After waking up daily at 7 a.m., the band has breakfast and announcements before starting rehearsal. They then participate in a full-band ballyhoo, which is when the band marches throughout the fairground as a group to play in various locations. The AOSFB has two separate bands: the black band and the red band. Students audition for both groups and the bands are fairly equal. The ballyhoo includes both the black and red bands. The band then has more performances and participates in a mini parade that features both the All-Ohio State Fair Band and the All-Ohio State Fair Choir. Following dinner, there will be another full-band ballyhoo and the day wraps up with a couple more performances.
Over the course of the fair, the band will march between seven and 12 miles each day. Michaels said competing in swimming and track and field has helped him raise his fitness to have the ability to march the distance.
Michaels, son of Christi, 5th grade Title teacher at Dalton, and John, who works at Sarta in the finance department, recently returned from Guatemala on a trip with Salem Mennonite Youth Fellowship in Kidron. He works at Ramseyer Farms during the summer and off season. His mom said he has worked on the signs there for the mazes, building improvements and other grounds work. This fall will be his third year working for the Ramseyers. Michaels has a sister, Mariah, who will be a freshman. He is looking in to possibly pursuing mechanical engineering after high school.
Dalton High School’s band director Randy Kaserman noted the prestige of being selected to perform with the band.
“This is quite an honor as it is an auditioned group,” said Kaserman. “Noah will be performing on the percussion. He is an outstanding and talented young man who has worked very hard to prepare for this. Noah is the first student in my 24 years teaching at Dalton to audition and be accepted into this group. He worked very hard to prepare for his audition and he will be the perfect representation of our Dalton High School band program.”
