By Maysen Marolda
Staff Writer
The Mira Costa Marching Band competed in the Southern California School Band & Orchestra Association Field Championships on Nov. 21 at Warren High School in Downey, and placed 7th place in their division out of 12 bands.
The band performed their completed show in the 4A division, which consists of smaller bands compared to the 5A division. According to Band President and clarinet section leader Lauren Koch, this was the first time the band competed against the most cohesive and tenacious bands in the 4A division.
“We’ve competed against tougher groups in previous competitions, but they were usually in the 5A division groups,” Koch said. “This was the first time where we had to compete against all of the toughest groups in the 4A division.”
According to Koch, marching band improved from the last competition since they increased their musical presence compared to the last show. The show had a lot of big and lengthy musical moments, so it was imperative that they played loudly and with exceptional tone.
“Playing with good tone is really difficult when you are out of breath,” Koch said. “But everyone really gave 100% at this last show and held out all the notes and captured all the musical expressivity, so the musical impact was really there.”
According to Drum Major Adrian Yu, their show sets a new and higher degree for marching band, causing them to forget their foundation every so often. For this performance, he felt that there was a newfound focus on the basics, like marching techniques.
“All the efforts we have made to tell our story not just from a musical standpoint, but from a visual standpoint between the clouds and the ways that we interact with them along with the dynamic visual movements, helps us to tell our story,” Band director Joel Carlson said.
According to Yu, the band felt that their championship score was a poor representative of how well they actually performed that night. They plan on meeting throughout the offseason to work out the changes and improvements that need to be made so that they can come back next season better than ever.
“I think we are all pretty pleased overall,” Yu said. “We got better with each performance and the crowd was always really responsive to our show.”
Marching band additionally performed in the Santa Parade on Nov. 27 at the Manhattan Village Mall. They led the parade and marched through the shopping center playing Christmas songs, other stand tunes and drum cadences.
“We performed ‘Christmas On Parade’ which is our special parade song that we do specifically for the Santa Parade, along with ‘Mirada,’ our usual parade song,” Yu said.
Leave a Reply