Arts & Entertainment
Marching Band Succeeds While Standing Still
Columbia High Marching Band earns honors in first two competitions
The 72-member-strong Columbia High School Cougar Marching Band is heating up just as the weather is cooling off.
The Cougars completed their second competition this past weekend and captured 2nd Place overall at Randolph High School's 37th Annual "Under The Stars" competition. The Cougars placed 4th the previous week in the Pequannock Marching Band competition.
The Color Guard section of the marching band is red hot, having captured 1st place for best Color Guard in both the Pequannock and Randolph contests.
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The Cougars missed first place by a miniscule 1/4 of one point, falling to competition winner Nutley High School. However, they will have another crack at their Essex County rival on Saturday, October 16. That's when both schools compete at the Mount Olive Marching Band competition.
Coincidentally—or as fate would have it—the two bands will see each other earlier that day when Columbia Football plays at Nutley.
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In the meantime, it's practice, practice, practice for the band and its sections.
For most, weekends are a time of rest, relaxation and rejuvenation but the Columbia Marching Band must have ripped the "R" section out of its dictionary. Since we last reported on the Marching Band at the end of August, band members have been practicing three times a week as well as cramming in additional practice sessions called by section captains.
In addition to the practices, the band has been busy since the beginning of the school year performing at the undefeated football team's contests—the latest at Shabbaz this past Friday night.
After their performance Saturday, September 25, at the football team's home game vs. East Side, the band packed up and boarded buses out to the Pequannock Competition. Band Director Peter Bauer was pleased with these performances: "They put on two great shows and are starting to pull it together."
Bauer's words would prove prescient as the band revved it up for the Randolph competition. When the marching band arrived for practice this past Saturday at Lynn V. Profeta Field, members learned that they would not be allowed to march at the Randolph field in that evening's competition due to damage done to the field during the previous night's football game. All bands performing in the show would have to perform in place.
This predicament required Bauer and his staff to make adjustments on the fly. The band spent the better part of 3-1/2 hours reworking the program, learning where they would be on the field and putting the finishing touches on their 2010 program "Spanish Fantasy."
The program includes Chick Correa's song Spanish Fantasy at the beginning and end, conducted by drum major and senior Jonathan Schneider; and Joaquin Rodrigo's Concerto de Araunjuez in the middle, conducted by drum major and senior DeShawn Gray.
The size of the band—72 members—places Columbia in Group 3A competition. Marching bands compete against other bands of similar size, and Group 3 is designated for bands of between 59-77 members. Columbia is on the higher end of this range leading Bauer to refer to his band as a "Big Three." (Columbia competes under the umbrella of the U.S. Scholastic Band Association.)
According to Bauer this is "a size that has remained fairly constant over the last several years." Although approximately 20 band seniors graduated from Columbia in 2010, Bauer estimated that they were replaced with roughly the same number of freshmen.
So what is the recipe for success for the Columbia High School Marching Band? Band Director Peter Bauer has a staff of nine part-time people who work on instruction and teaching for the band.—including everything from musical and technical instruction to choreography.
Of course you can't have a band without musicians so the recipe also calls for 19 Woodwind players, 17 Brass musicians, 17 Percussionists and 16 Color Guard. Each group has one or more Section Leader and the Color Guard has Captains and Section Leaders.
According to Bauer the Section Leaders and Captains are integral to the band's success. "They are an extension of staff, when we are not there in terms of music, teaching and discipline," Bauer explained. He added, "Section leaders also have the authority to call their own practices" outside of the practices that are scheduled for the entire marching band.
Bringing everything together are the drum majors who, according to Bauer, "run the show for the performances and manage the band on the field"—since adult staff are not allowed on the field during competitions.
Columbia students, families and friends will have the opportunity to check out the Marching Band at competitions at North Brunswick High School next Saturday, October 9 and Mount Olive High School on Saturday, October 16.
The band is also scheduled to appear at the Columbia home football game against rival Millburn on Saturday, October 9; the North Brunswick Columbus Day Parade on Sunday, October 10; and the previously mentioned road game at Nutley on Saturday, October 16.
In speaking about this year's theme and program Bauer emphasized that his goals for the season were to "put on a show the kids will enjoy performing and a show people will enjoy watching."
