farragutpress

CCS performed Becoming America

July 1, 2026 by Tammy Cheek

Concord Christian School honored the nation’s founding in May, when its marching band performed in a concert, Becoming America — A Journey Through Sound — at First Baptist Concord along Kingston Pike, Farragut.

“It was an incredibly fun night,” said Natalie Renfroe, who director of bands along with assistant director Hannah Smith. Renfroe also serves as CCS’s fine arts chair.

“The goal of this [band] program is not just learn an instrument, but to be His instrument,” Renfroe said. “The CCS Band prepares students to be independent, life-long musicians who understand how creating music brings them closer to their creator.

“Our inspiration is Genisis-2:3 when God breathed life into Adam to activate him,” the director said. “We breathe into our instruments and bring instruments life. We want to be God's instruments.”

Regarding the concert, Renfroe said 125 students, made up of fifth- through 12th-graders, performed, showcasing absolute beginners to CCS’s 12th-grade high school concert, jazz and marching band.

“The program wanted to give a prismatic view of what God has done over the past decade with the culmination of Latin jazz favorite, ‘Malaguena,” she said. “This particular song featured our student-led and student-choreographed color guard by junior Kayci Fleenor.

“As a director, I am passionate about affording our students real world opportunities with real risk taking,” Renfroe said. “Senior Jacob Poling arranged, rehearsed and directed the Latin Jazz Band tune, ‘Sofrito.’ Jacob was accepted in to North Texas' extremely competitive Jazz performance program and is scheduled to perform locally.”

During the 2025-26 school year, “we celebrated our 10th season as a marching band,” the director said. “Over the last 10 years, The Pride of Den has been unique in that it has afforded home-school students, as well as students from other Christian schools without a marching band to participate.

“We wanted to be ladder holders for schools for other like-minded groups to help springboard more Christian school bands into a public-school dominated environment,” Renfroe said. “We are excited that the schools with which we cooperated have their own marching bands and CCS will be solely marching those affiliated with Concord.

In its program, “We have seen incredible growth,” she said. “When I began working with Concord in 2019 as an assistant band director, the Pride had between 25 to 27 students. The 2026 season will have 52 marchers. God is so good!”