Keith Gates: Music

Steven Hand was been the artistic director of bands at A.M. Barbe High School in Lake Charles for many years, starting in 1980. Under his direction, the band was the Louisiana representative in the 1989 inaugural parade. Barbe's Honors Symphonic Band won the National Championship in the National Events Concert Competition in 1993 and was selected to perform as Concert Band of America in Chicago in 1994. Hand founded the Lake Charles Wind Symphony in 1994, and has conducted regular programs of high-quality wind band literature, as well as transcriptions of orchestral, soundtrack and Broadway music. Hand has performed symposia with many of the best-known wind band conductors in the United States.