By MJ Johnson
This year we proudly welcome Wayne Markworth to the WGI Hall of Fame as the first WGI Winds inductee. Wayne served as the Director of Bands at Centerville High School for 35 years, leading them to many accolades and awards with the symphonic band, jazz ensembles, and marching band. Under his leadership, the Centerville High School Marching Band were finalists in Bands of America Regionals and Grand Nationals 57 times under his leadership; becoming the Grand Nationals champions in 1992. In addition to his induction into the WGI Hall of Fame, Wayne was inducted into the Bands of America Hall of fame in 2007 and the Central States Judges Association Hall of Fame in 2023.
Wayne began his marching arts journey in high school. After college, he began teaching at several Drum Corps International groups. After retiring in 2005, Wayne took on a part-time role at Wright State University and wrote a textbook for marching band directors, “The Dynamic Marching Band.”
“I am truly honored to be the first Winds Division recipient and feel that I am representing the countless wonderful people that make up this group,” Wayne says. “It has been my privilege to work with and become friends with so many wonderful directors, designers, staff members, and adjudicators. I am very thankful for the support I received from Ron Nankervis and Bart Woodley from the very beginning and the incredible office staff that works miracles to make WGI the great organization it is.”
Wayne was first invited to a meeting in 2013 to discuss the possibility of creating a Winds division for WGI.
“It sounded like an intriguing idea for performances focusing on the winds section of bands,” he notes. “What I found to be the most interesting was what could be created in an indoor venue in regards to music, movement and theme/story portrayal with an audience involvement that would be much more “up close and personal” than a football stadium.” After much discussion and to his surprise, in 2014 he was invited to be the Director of Winds which he “gladly accepted”.
That same year, several winds groups performed exhibition performances at the WGI Percussion World Championships 2014. Wayne notes two groups gave memorable performances, Northglenn Performance Theatre from Colorado under the direction of Dave Marvin and Aimachi Winds from Nagoya, Japan with design by Michael Gaines.
”Both Dave and Michael were influential at the first planning meetings and already had a vision in mind,” Wayne shares. “These performances showed the amazing possibilities with a Winds Division and demonstrated the creativity, uniqueness and diversity that was possible.” These exhibition performances helped create a buzz in both the WGI and marching band activity which helped kick-off the first season in 2015.
”Following those performances, my focus as Winds Director was to spread the word and disseminate information in the various marching pageantry arts arenas. I also created adjudication sheets and rules and regulations, modeling the Percussion Division as much as possible,” Wayne continues. “We wanted a similarity and continuity as many people would be involved from both Percussion and Color Guard divisions. Further, I assembled experienced judges who I felt would be open to the brand new concept and had experience in the other marching pageantry events.”
In the inaugural year, 2015, there were a total of 34 total regional entries and 20 entries at Winds World Championships. In 2019, this number doubled in only four years. While the loss of the 2020 and 2021 season due to the pandemic caused a setback to the growth of the division, the 2026 season has seen record numbers of 90+ regional entries and 48 World Championships entries.
”Many local indoor circuits are now offering a winds classification at their events,” Wayne shares. “Just as important to me has been the steady growth of performance quality.”
“The Winds Administration Team is outstanding and will continue to grow and guide the division. This team consists of Wayne Dillon (Director of Winds), Glenn Fugett (Chief Judge), Jeff Harper (Education Director) with a very active and supportive Steering Committee.”
When asked about what he looks forward to as the WGI Winds division continues to grow, Wayne says, “I look forward to watching the fantastic creativity and performance levels grow as well as the number of groups. My hope is that there will always be room for a variety of instrumentation choices and sizes of groups from small to ‘fill the gym floor’.”
About the Author:
Madison Johnson graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a BA in English Language and Digital Technologies with a concentration in Technical Writing. She currently works as a copywriter for a Software as a Service company in Charlotte, NC. She was a member of Étude Winter guard for five years from 2015-2019.
