By Maysen Marolda
Staff Writer
The Mira Costa Marching band won first place out of 22 bands in their competition on Nov. 7 at Oxnard High School, receiving the highest scores for visual effects, music effects, general effects, visual performance and overall band score, a recognition which is referred to as “Sweepstakes.”
The percussion section won first place in the 4A division, the color guard won second place in the 4A division, and the marching band won first place overall out of all the divisions from 1A to 5A.
“Our biggest improvement from last competition was musical presence, as in playing dynamically and nailing initiations and releases,” Marching band president and clarinet section leader Lauren Koch said. “This show is really physically demanding, so playing with good musical presence is super difficult.”
According to Koch, the marching band performed the same show they have been working on since the beginning of the year. This was the first time they were able to perform the completed show at a competition.
“The strongest part of our show was the Ballad, as it has become a nice feature for us,” drum major leader Adrian Yu said. “The “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” flute solo really seems to speak to the crowd, which is a nice feeling as a drum major when you know you have a soloist who consistently performs well under pressure.”
According to Koch, the marching band used problem solving and worked cohesively through all their issues. Rolling clouds across the field for the show as props created a potential problem since they could easily get stuck in the ground. The weather was much colder on the day of the competition than the band was used to performing in, which could have affected the sound of the instruments.
“Basically, there were just a lot of outside factors that could have caused major problems in the show but the band worked through them flawlessly,” Koch said.
As stated by Koch, there are still many aspects to improve in the band’s show such as refining the visual performance and musicality, as the show is physically demanding and a strong endurance is imperative.
“I think in all my four years here I’ve never even performed the same show twice,” Koch said. “We are always adding things or removing things or tweaking things from competition to competition so we can improve.”
In marching band’s show “Stratosphere Above the Clouds” on Oct. 17 at Kennedy High School, they placed first in their 4A division for Band and Auxiliary, and Percussion placed first in Sweepstakes. Their next event is on Nov. 14 which is the the Savana Field Tournament in Anaheim.
“What set us apart from other schools was our visual effects,” marching band director Joel Carlson said. “The advanced visual movements that we do beyond our regular marching and playing help us to stand forward in the pack.”
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