MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Music filled the air of Okemos High School on Saturday Feb. 28, as Meridian Community Band hosted the Red Cedar Festival of Community Bands. Audiences had a chance to listened to eleven bands coming from across Michigan and Ontario.

This has been the 20th year of the festival. Each band presented a concert, after which four clinicians gave critics on their performance. Johan de Meij is one of the clinicians, who has won international fame as a composer.

He also performed two songs with Meridian Community Band as a director. The audiences and the band members expressed their appreciation for the guest musician and this musical event.

"I thought he did a good job. It was nice to have a man and have a little change, and to have somebody who actually wrote the music and conduct it," said an audience member from Haslett.

Tracy Sonneborn, French Horn player at Meridian Community Band, said the event is great."We get to see people who don't put their instrument away after they graduate from high school or college. They manage to keep playing all their lives. That's a great way to meet people, great way to keep your mind active, and to have smartness and enjoyment."

As "education is the emphasis of the Festival," there were also four instrumental master classes going on during the day. Both the concerts and the classes were free to the public.