Both the Marching Band and Symphony Band are one of only a very few high school bands to participate in the
inauguration ceremony of
President George W. Bush. Warren S. Mercer Jr., North Hills High Band Director for 31 years until 1992, elevated the North Hills High School Symphony Band to national prominence. The band continued through director David Matthews (1992 - 2011) and under current director Leonard Lavelle (2012–present) The NHHS Symphony Band has a long tradition, beginning in the 1950s with James Caruso, Warren Mercer, David Matthews, and currently Len Lavelle. The Symphony Band has also maintained the longest-running series of commissioned works of any high school band in the United States, beginning in 1965 with Philip Catelinet's Fantasy Mother Hubbard. Other commissioned works for the Symphony Band have been written by Mr. Don Gillis, Mr. Edward Madden, Mr. Robert Jager, Mr.
Jerry Bilik, Mr. Rex Mitchell, Mr.
Vaclav Nelhybel, Dr. Paul Whear, Mr.
Norman Dello Joio, and Dr.
Joseph Willcox Jenkins. Guest conductors through the years have included, Dr.
William Revelli, Dr. Richard Strange, Dr.James Neilson, Dr. James Dunlop (PSU), Mr. Vaclav Nelhybel and in March 1973,
Arthur Fiedler, Director of the
Boston Pops Orchestra. ( References: MENC Music Educators National Conference January 19–22, 1973, Boston North Hills Symphony Band Bio Sheet, and.) The NHHS Symphony Band was awarded the first Sudler Flag of Honor by the John Philip Sousa Foundation in 1983. The NHHS Symphony Band has won the highest honors in its section at the Carnegie Awards Festival sponsored by
Carnegie Mellon University. It has performed at the
Pennsylvania Music Educators Association State Convention 1965, 1971, 1995, 1998, 2014, and 2016; the Mid-West National Band Clinic, Chicago, Illinois, 1966, 1970, 1983, and 1987; the Mid-East Instrumental Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1967; the Music Educators National Convention in 1973, 1997, 2015 and 2017. In more recent years, the band played at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Their Wind Ensemble was the second opening act following the Arlington MA Honors Orchestra, for the 2024 Harmonic Convergence Concert (with the Choirs of America) playing at
Carnegie Hall in
New York City. They played; "Hungarian March" from
La Damnation de Faust, Op. 24, by Hector Berlioz, Down a County Lane, by Aaron Copland, Fallingwater at Twilight(world premiere), by James M. David, and "Christus, der uns Selig Macht" from Symphony No. 4, by David Maslanka. ==Popular culture==