Award-Winning Council Rock Bands Trumpet In A New School Year

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The sights and sounds of a new school year reverberated through Walt Snyder Stadium Wednesday night as the award-winning Council Rock North and Council Rock South marching bands took to the field.

Preview Night has become a tradition at Council Rock taking place at the conclusion of band camp and just days before the opening of the new school year.

Both bands are gearing up for October - competition month - where the musicians will be competing against the best bands in the region.

On Wednesday night, the musicians gave their parents, friends and classmates a sneak peek at this year’s field shows, which promise to be exciting.

“We have the privilege of doing this every year, presenting the fruits of our labor for the past two weeks,” South band director John Burns told the audience. “Both bands have been working hard to memorize their field shows. And it’s quite an undertaking because the musicians and performers are acquiring the skills of how we march, how we hold the flags while also memorizing it in the context of our show.

“For us, that’s 98 different formations. And it’s not just 98 formations it’s how they move through space and time while we are playing and making music,” he said.

On Wednesday night, South presented the first two movements of its field show, “A World of Our Own.”

The show features music that has a world theme, including “What a Wonderful World,” “Mad World,” “Everybody Wants To Rules the World,” “The End of the World As We Know It” and "New World Symphony.”

Like South, the North Band used its band camp to focus on the fundamentals, both in marching and playing, said band director Wayne Bishop.

For Preview Night, the North Band performed the first movement from its field show, “Unbridled,” a celebration of equestrian culture and the free spirit of horses using familiar themes from the William Tell and the Light Calvary Overtures.

“The combination of both the power and grace of this majestic creature will be on display in this impactful show that brings us back to our own childhood when we dreamed of having our very own pony,” said Bishop.

Eventually the field show will include eight sections of split rail fence to signify a horse stable and the color guard will be dressed up to look like horses and to act like horses.

“They will start the show like free horses roaming around and being majestic and everything like that,” said Bishop. “And then during the course of the first movement they will be corralled into a pen and become domesticated horses."

As the show continues, one of the horses experiences a little bit of freedom and "we get to
see the beauty and joy of the horse. And then in the last movement they all break out and it’s a free for all. It’s really awesome,” said Bishop.

Keep watch on social media and the school district's websites this fall for when the bands will be competing. Their shows should be exciting to watch.