West High School and the West High School Band was founded in 1951 as a part of the Knoxville City Schools high school expansion program. The band has been traditionally a small ensemble of 40- 55 members until the early 1990's. The Knoxville City Schools went out of the school business in 1986 and was taken over by the Knox County School System. As the population of Knoxville moved to the suburbs the former City High Schools became smaller and the County High Schools became over crowded. A plan was presented by the Knox County School Board to redraw the school zone lines to send more students back toward the former City High Schools.
In 1991 West High School under went a 12.2 million dollar renovation to house the newly rezoned students. With this renovation came a new Choral Music suite and a new Instrumental Music suite. The music department was housed in "classrooms" behind the main auditorium for many years prior to moving to the James Agee Building. The Agee Building was a movie studio owned by the City of Knoxville on the West High School campus. It was later given to the City Schools after the filming of its one and only movie.
The renovation and new school zones brought students back to West High and back into the band program. Since the renovation the Marching Band membership has been around 100 and the Concert Band membership is between 65-75.
The program consistently receives "Superior" ratings in Marching, Concert and Sight Reading at state level music festivals. Students are provided with opportunities to expand their musicianship levels through Marching Band, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Music Theory class, solo performances, all types of small instrumental ensembles, Color Guard, Majorettes, Indoor Drumline and computer aided instruction.