Welcome to the inaugural edition of the HornRank Marching Brackets! Below is a compilation of some of our favorite shows from the last decade that helped expand the activity into what it has become today. The process of getting from the hundreds of great shows we’ve been fortunate enough to watch over the years to 32 was difficult, but now we look forward to seeing fans decide which group had the best show of the past ten years.
Before you start voting, here’s how we picked the 32 shows that are in the bracket:
- We included the last ten Grand National Champions and placed them in the eight 1 and 2 seeds with the remaining two as 3 seeds.
- The remaining 22 slots were other groups with memorable shows that had a major impact on marching band for future years or were moving because of demand, music performance, visual performance, etc.
- The four 8 seeds are shows that had a large impact the activity for varying reasons, but didn’t necessarily place first or second at a major event.
We left some incredibly great groups and shows out of this bracket because there have been way more than 32 awesome shows over the last decade. Let us know who you think should’ve been in and why in the comments or on email. We will update the bracket at around the same pace that the NCAA basketball tournament bracket is advancing, so keep coming back to vote each round as we determine America’s favorite Bands of America show of the past ten years.
We've divided the bracket into four regions, each name is the last name of one of the main composers used in each region’s 1 seed show:
- Copland Region (First Round, Second Round, Third Round)
- Shostakovich Region (First Round, Second Round, Third Round)
- Reich Region (First Round, Second Round, Third Round)
- Barber Region (First Round, Second Round, Third Round)
Don’t forget to check out our 2016 regional pages as well, where we’ve posted which groups we know (unofficially) are attending various BOA events in 2016.