After playing their “The Time is Now” themed music, featuring music from Foo Fighters, Rocky “Horror Picture Show” and Green Day, the band marched off the Festival field with a Division 1 title ranking.
“My favorite part is the anticipation leading up to that [festival] and getting everyone riled up and excited and really getting into it for by far our performance of the year,” senior drum major Logan Groove said.
Preparation for the spotlight included a week-long summer camp at Beck Elementary with 14 hour-long practices. As school started Tuesday and Thursday evening practices commenced. Practice starts with 30 minutes dedicated to the basics before focusing on whichever song or drill needs more attention.
“The ability to learn things faster has changed because we definitely learned the show in quite a short amount of time,” senior drum major Cayla Colby said.
Welcoming the new band director, Bradley Arnold, band members credit how quickly he picked up the role with a positive attitude. Despite the transition in leadership, little changed for the band.
“This year, being my first year, it’s all about getting to meet the kids, learning what’s already working within the program and helping amplify that,” Arnold said. “And help make sure that kids feel welcome and comfortable and know that this is their band, our band, and we’re building something that’s bigger than ourselves.”
Graduating from Michigan State University, studying trumpet performance and music education, along with five prior years in teaching band led him to this new position.
“I love getting to see the kids have their moment on their stage with the stage lights right on them and getting to see them shine,” Arnold said.
The group reviewed their show after performing at Band-A-Rama. Any revisions were applied to their Festival performance. The 106 band members left Festival with a Division 1 rating on Oct.12.
“It was a spectacular, firework performance,” Arnold said. “Our kids are great and it was great just to be able to represent UCS.”
