Irvington Varsity Band performs at Santa Cruz
By: Manbir Ghuman | Photo Editor & Web Editor
Competing against 55 different bands across the Bay, Irvington Varsity Band won awards in several divisions after changing up the structure of its band for the first time. On Oct. 15, Irvington competed at the Santa Cruz band review marching west along Second St, where a panel of judges and several people lined up to see the performance.
Throughout the day, there were light showers at Santa Cruz which made it difficult to practice and prepare for the competition. When the band first arrived at the Boardwalk, there was moderate rainfall that the Band had to face.
“The rain made practice quite difficult, because water was getting into instruments and it was cold, wet, and muddy, but I’m glad everyone still gave their best effort and weather came around afterwards for a little while,” said senior alto sax player Kevin Trieu.
Luckily, although it was raining for the majority of the day, there was a 30 minute stretch of perfect, sunny weather while Irvington performed.
For the first time this year Irvington Band split into two bands, Varsity and Junior Varsity. The reason for the switch was to create a band that was more manageable and also included the top students in Marching Band.
“The band was getting really long which made it very difficult for the front to keep up with the back in regards of music. Another reason was that in the larger band skill levels varied making it harder to pinpoint areas that needed improvement,” said band director Charlie Rodda.
Irvington Varsity placed 1st in drumline, 2nd place division 6A band, and 5th in drum major. Although the band did better than previous Band Reviews at Santa Cruz, there were still some misshapes. “I felt that the band as a whole did ok, but I know we did not perform at the best of our abilities,” said senior trombone player Jasper Huang.
To prepare and improve for future band reviews, varsity plans to practice areas that they were weak in, such as spacing ranks and remaining in file.
