Aside from being the main entertainment of the football game (though kudos to the undefeated Kennedy football team this year!), marching band has developed a competitive culture that includes competitions at the regional and state level. This weekend the Kennedy High School marching band competed at the Valleyfest Showdown XXXVI an invitational at West Des Moines Valley High School.
It was very entertaining to see all the great bands including CR Washington, LinnMar, CR Jefferson, and Prairie from Eastern Iowa, as well as Dowling, Johnston, and Ankeny from Central Iowa. Show music varied from spooky, voodooey selections by Bellevue West Nebraska to swing music by the Pella Marching Dutch. The Cedar Rapids bands also had a variety of music including Washington marching to music from Les Miserables, and LinnMar doing a theme of Transfiguration which took one of the songs used by the Kennedy band who performed selections from the musical, Jekyl and Hyde.
Unlike in the past, this year's Valleyfest was relatively warm. Regularly, we have to keep our instruments constantly warm or they will freeze, as I learned my freshman and sophomore years. We didn't have to multiply layers of clothing, two sweatshirts, and a blanket to stay warm in the stands while watching the other performances, either.
The highlight of the night for many people was Kennedy performing. The opener, "Prologue", "Take Me As I Am," and "I Need to Know," kicked off our performance. McKenna Woods soloed on flute for the ballad, "Once Upon a Dream," (the song that LinnMar stole from us) which was beautiful beyond words. As we ended our show, the crowd erupted with cheers and applause for our closer, "Murder, Murder!, World Gone Insane, & Confrontation." We finished fourth, our highest rank since 2002, overall. We finished as the top ranked band from Cedar Rapids, and the second ranked in the state at Valley.
We have improved tremendously from August band camp, and we got here through long hours and much practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment