Programs
 

The Upper School Band Program is a composite of the concert band, jazz ensembles, woodwind ensemble, and jazz combos. Its members perform at school and community functions, as well as national and local competitions. Members of the Upper School band are encouraged to study privately with woodwind, brass, and percussion specialists. Many participate in select state and local honor groups, including the GMEA All-State Bands and Orchestra, GISA All-Select Band, Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Atlanta (Emory) Youth Wind Symphony. Members of the Ellington Jazz Ensemble are chosen by audition and enter the international Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition each year.

The Seventh and Eighth Grade Jazz Ensemble members are selected by audition and rehearse every Thursday during their regularly scheduled band period. The class examines basic swing, rock, and Latin styles, as well as beginning improvisation. The Lovett Middle School Jazz Ensembles have earned superior ratings for the last 10 years at the Music in the Parks Festival, as well as winning numerous outstanding soloist awards and sweepstakes honors.

The Lovett Middle School Bands perform numerous times throughout the year, including a Christmas concert, the annual Prism Concert, the Six Flags Band Festival, and at local retirement homes. Students perform concert band literature, and in seventh and eighth grade begin a curriculum of jazz studies. The Middle School Bands have received superior ratings, sweepstakes honors, and outstanding soloist awards at numerous band festivals, as well as invitations to perform at the state music convention. They also have produced many All-State band students. 

The Lower School Bands offer a unique experience for the first-time instrumentalist. Students begin their musical training in the fourth and fifth grades. The bands perform three concerts each year, including the holiday performance in December, the spring Prism Concert, and the final concert for the Lower School in May.

Faculty
Stutz Wimmer, Upper School band director at Lovett, holds a bachelor of music degree from Appalachian State University and a master's degree in music from the Eastman School of Music at The University of Rochester. He is currently in his 21st year at Lovett. Mr. Wimmer was also the band director for 6 years at Druid Hills High School while serving as the director of jazz at Emory University. He is an active clinician, and has served as president and in other offices of the Georgia Association of Jazz Educators Board. For 20 years he has been a freelance saxophonist, arranger, and consultant. Under his direction, Emory and Lovett ensembles were selected to perform at the Georgia Music Educators Association's In-Service Conference in Savannah, and his Lovett Jazz Orchestra was selected to perform at the International Association of Jazz Educators Conference in 1996. Founder of the Lovett Ellington Jazz Ensemble in 1995, Stutz has taken three of his ensembles to the national finals of the Essentially Ellington Competition at Lincoln Center in New York. He has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, on HBO, and has recorded locally for hundreds of radio and television commercials and film and record projects alongside some of the industry's most widely recognized recording artists.

Paul Scanling, a native Georgian, grew up in a family of teachers in Columbus. With a master's degree from Georgia State University and a bachelor's degree from Florida State University, he taught in the public school systems in Florida and Georgia before coming to Lovett as the Middle School band director in 2005. A flutist by trade, Paul is in demand as a woodwind teacher and arranger throughout Metro Atlanta. 

Charissa Gransden is the Lower School band director. This is her second year at Lovett, her 11th year teaching band, and her 18th year as a private flute instructor. She holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Georgia State University. Mrs. Gransden has been an adjudicator and guest clinician throughout the Metro Atlanta area. She is a freelance flute player who has performed with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, Orchestra Atlanta, and the Southern Crescent Symphony.