About the Folsom High School Music Program

Under the direction of Mr. Curtis Gaesser since 1987, the Folsom High School music program has developed into a national model of music education excellence. The marching band/color guard, orchestras, concert band, jazz bands and jazz choirs make for a full performance and competition schedule each year.

Here's just a sampling of the accolades and awards the groups haveaccumulated over the years:

• DownBeat Magazine, one of the country's most highly regarded jazz publications, has awarded the Folsom High School Jazz Band I "Best High School Big Band" nine times since 1993 and the Jazz Choir I "Best High School Jazz Choir" fifteen times since 1994.
• Sacramento Magazine named the Folsom High School Marching Band and Color Guard "Best Marching Band in 2010."
• Folsom High School was named a Grammy Signature School in 2003, meaning its music program was among the nation's 20 best in terms of quality, fundraising, curriculum and the level of technology and instruments available to students.
• Folsom High School was named a "JAMMIES" Signature School by the Sacramento News and Review in 2008.
• In 2008, Folsom was selected as one of the Best Communities for Music Education by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation, awarded to only two towns in California.

The jazz ensembles have performed and competed, by invitation, in venues large and small throughout Europe and the United States, including the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and California's own Monterey Jazz Festival where they have earned many 1st place awards. The Folsom High School Jazz Band I opened for the Count Basie Orchestra in 2006. (When the professionals took the stage, one of them quipped, "We just had a meeting before we all came out, and we don't want to follow that.")