Teacher Honored in Midwest Music Festival Hall of Fame

Every year, high school musicians and music lovers alike come together for the Midwest Music Festival held at Lemont High School. Over one hundred high school bands in the Chicago land area are invited to participate in the fest which doubles as a contest. The bands entered in the festival are divided into three divisions. The division of each band is determined by the level of music their band plans on performing. Bands have thirty minutes to perform two contest selections were one must be a march in front of a panel of qualified adjudicators.

The Midwest Music Fest has been going on for 37 years and Tinley Park High School has been in attendance with their Band Director, Mr. Vince Aiello for 26 of those years. Mr. Aiello’s hard work has paid off in a numerous amount of ways leading the Tinley Park High School bands of past and present into the top-five ranking for Group 1, which is the highest class there is and is equivalent to college-level music. The Tinley Park High School band has also gone to win Illinois Superstate Championships and has received Superior Ratings at the fest for the past 20+ years, all of which can be credited to Mr. Aiello’s dedication to helping his students grow musically throughout the years.

This year, Mr. Aiello was honored in a special way by the festival as he was inducted into the Midwest Music Festival Hall of Fame. This is an honor that has only been given to 12 other Directors to date. In order to be honored in the Hall of Fame, Directors must be with the festival for more than 10 years and demonstrate how the festival has made a positive impact on the music programs at their school.

Congratulations to Mr. Vince Aiello on this achievement. District 228 looks forward to the many more accomplishments you will help lead our students to.