To meet WGI and IPA requirements and to be good stewards of the activity, IGNITE requires permission from a band director or percussion director for each K-12 student who participates. Many directors may have concerns before recommending students to participate. And many of you may be curious about the activity or want to get involved. We hope this page will help you with all of that.
Is this thing legit?
IGNITE Performing Arts, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit corporation with a board of directors, qualified staff, and liability insurance. Our director is a certified music educator with an MBA and 2 decades of experience teaching in the marching arts.
IGNITE has been operating since the fall of 2020. We restructured the organization in 2024, but the instructional staff and leadership approach remained the same through that change, so we now have several years of organizational experience.
We have relationships with local high schools, a stable rehearsal site, and a committed staff and board that have already taken the ensemble to WGI World Championships. Changes in rehearsal times and locations are extremely rare for us, with the exception of weather events.
Students and families can expect quality, consistency, and professionalism from our organization.
Will students be safe?
Student safety is our number one priority. It is always the first thing we address when making decisions about hiring staff, prop design, performance expectations, and calling rehearsal cancelations or late starts for road conditions.
We have safety measures and best practices in place to maintain boundaries and protect students from physical and emotional harm.
All adults who have more than 2 hours of contact with students receive criminal background checks and SafeSport training. This training addresses issues like abuse, misconduct, bullying, hazing, and mandatory reporting.
We keep all background checks and SafeSport certificates on file. These files are audited by WGI. As the band director of a student in our organization, you can request to check on these at any time.
How will this help students?
We are a values-driven organization that pushes students to balance life priorities: “be a good person, family member, friend, student, band member, and IGNITE member.” We strive to develop the whole person, emphasizing “passion, engagement, and leadership,” including “professionalism, taking initiative, and leading by doing.”
Students will develop both leadership skills and music skills that they will bring back to their high school band program. The audition process alone will help develop many of these skills.
One of our big educational goals is to develop the whole musician. We deliberately cover many concert percussion skills, jazz and pop music skills, and music theory skills into our rehearsals so that students are bringing more knowledge into their school ensembles during the week.
How will students balance this with their high school band?
We often emphasize with students that IGNITE is a supplement to their high school band program, and their school band comes first. Our organizational values in the front of their binder remind them to “be a good person, family member, friend, student, band member, and IGNITE member” in that order.
Our policy is that students will not miss any performances for their high school band, including pep band. You read that correctly. If a student is needed for their high school pep band at the same time that IGNITE has a competition, they will go to their high school band, and IGNITE will march a hole for that show. The only exception to this is WGI World Championships, which is April 16-17. This does conflict with the ISSMA HS Organization Week 1 Friday night performances. If a student needs to perform at ISSMA that Saturday, they can get back for that, but they would potentially miss their Thursday and Friday rehearsals that week.
We ask all students for their band schedule at the beginning of the season and will help hold them accountable for this policy.
What is the bare minimum I need to do as a director?
If a student would like to perform with us, we just need an email to dgaking@igniteperformingarts.org from one of their high school band directors or percussion director saying the student has permission to be in IGNITE. That’s all.
What else can I do to get involved?
We appreciate any help distributing information to students about our clinics and auditions.
If you would like to help out at rehearsals, please contact us, and we will help you get a criminal background check and SafeSport training.
Band directors of IGNITE students have an open invitation to drop by and watch rehearsal at any time. We will send you the calendar.
Would you like to walk onto the floor with us at state finals or world championships? We usually have extra staff badges or wristbands for competitions. These are available to the band directors, first come first serve.
What if issues come up during the season?
We want IGNITE to improve students’ lives and to make them better members of your band program. We will give you our director’s cell number to make it easy for you to contact us if you have any concerns throughout the season.
Further questions?
For other questions or concerns, contact our director, Doug Gaking, at dgaking@igniteperformingarts.org.
IGNITE Performing Arts 