Marching Cougars
The Wake Forest Marching Cougars is an award-winning marching band consisting of woodwind, brass, percussion, and color guard performers. They perform at home football games, local parades, and several marching competitions each year. Registration for the Marching Cougars is in May, and the season runs from the end of July through the beginning of November. The Marching Cougars begin their season with a two-week band camp where students learn their music and drill formations for the year. Regular practices are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-8pm.
Concert Band (Beginning and Intermediate)
Concert Band is open to all students with prior musical experience on a band instrument. The concert band performs intermediate high school music, including classical, jazz, and popular styles. Students also learn the basics of technique and music theory. Concert band is a year-long course.
Wind Ensemble (Proficient and Advanced, Honors)
Wind Ensemble is the honors-level band at Wake Forest High School. Students must complete one year of concert band to be eligible for wind ensemble. This group performs more advanced high school music and learns advanced technique and music theory. Wind Ensemble is a year-long course.
Guitar Ensemble (Honors available)
NEW IN 2021! Guitar is being offered for the first time at WFHS as an academic course. Open to students of all skill levels. Students will learn the basics of guitar technique and music theory. The guitar ensemble will perform a variety of classical, jazz, and popular music. Guitar ensemble will meet in the fall semester, and students can repeat the class for honors credit.
Composition/AP Music Theory
Composition (Music Theory Proficient Honors) and AP Music Theory are offered as academic courses every other spring semester. These courses are open to all band, guitar, chorus, and theatre students, or to anyone who wishes to broaden their understanding of music!
In Composition class, students learn the craft of writing music. The first half of the course focuses on traditional notation and acoustic instruments, and the second half of the course focuses on electronics and music production.
AP Music Theory is a collegiate-level course designed to prepare students for the AP Music Theory Exam. Students learn how composers use melody, harmony, and rhythm to craft music. Students will also learn how to analyze music and find the underlying patterns of sound in any musical style.
Jazz Ensemble
The Wake Forest High School Jazz Ensemble is open to all students interested in performing jazz, latin, rock, and funk music. The jazz ensemble is an extracurricular group that meets starting in December. A traditional “big band” has 5 saxophones, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, guitar, bass, piano, drums, and percussion. Other students/instruments are welcome to join as well! Jazz ensemble meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30-4:30
Theatre Orchestra
The Theatre Orchestra is an extracurricular group that performs with the WFHS Theatre at the spring musical. The instrumentation of the group changes from year-to-year based on the needs of the show. Auditions take place in January and rehearsals run every Wednesday from 2:30-4:30.
Winter Guard
The award-winning WFHS Winter Guard is an indoor colorguard group that meets from November to April. The Winter Guard is a competitive group that performs at several shows in the Atlantic Indoor Association circuit. The Winter Guard is coached by Caleigh Crane.
