The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
BANDS PLAY ON
High school musicians flourish at band festival
For the 11 high school marching bands that performed Sept. 26 at the Lake County Music Educators Association’s 2018 Marching Band Festival, it was all about the rhythm, the moves and the grooves, not to mention the friends, family and fans.
Just ask Joe Frate, who’s in the 12th grade at Willoughby South High School and is the senior drum major in the school’s marching band.
As Frate embarks on his final year in high school and as a marching band member there, he said he’s always looked forward to the annual LCMEA marching band fest and it’s provided opportunities he might not have otherwise had.
“It’s always felt like a welcoming environment,” he said about the festival, which is not a competition and at which bands who don’t normally get to see each other’s routines get to check them out.
“It’s an environment in which people who love music get to come together and share camaraderie and our love of music,” he said. “We all work hard and put countless hours into it and it’s just great to be able to come together like this, especially because we get to see the other bands we don’t normally see during football season.”
He said the annual marching band festival has also brought him closer to peers he might not have gotten to know without his participation in the event.
“It’s just so much fun. And there’s a lot of camaraderie" — Wickliffe High School senior Ricky Bunn
“I’ve met friends over the years I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to know,” he said.
Mentor High School Marching Band Majorette and Guard Kelly Hoellein agreed the band is a big deal to those who partake and the annual LCMEA Marching Band Festival is a big deal to those who participate.
“Oh — the Lake County marching band festival is one of (band members’) favorite times of the year because they get to perform for more friends and family than they normally do,” she said. “Plus, it’s a great confidence booster. I mean, we compete all over the state. So, when we get to perform here at home, we get to see more of our friends and family and it’s not a competition. It’s just a chance for them to show off all the hard work they’ve put in and get some recognition for all that hard work.”
Like Frate, Hoellein — whose 16-year-old daughter, Reilly, is a Mentor Marching Band majorette — said there’s a great deal of camaraderie that goes along with being in the band.
Another proud participant in the 2018 LCMEA event — Wickliffe High School senior Ricky Bunn — said being part of it was an exciting experience that meant a great deal to him.
Last year, Bunn and some friends watched the marching band festival from the sidelines. He said that, this year, he was honored to have played percussion under the lights in his debut season with the band.
“It was a lot of fun. I’m really glad I joined,” Bunn said, adding that he’d considered being in the marching band at Wickliffe during his last three years there, but “other things got in the way.”
Now, he said, it’s like he’s got a second family.
“It’s just so much fun. And there’s a lot of camaraderie,” he said. “It’s like having a second family. I’m not even joking.”
His band director, Pamela Graves, said the Sept. 26 marching band festival at Mentor’s stadium is a perfect example of what Bunn was talking about.
“It’s not a competition,” she said. “It’s sharing our talents with each other, our different styles. I mean, you never get to see some of these other bands except for this event, so it’s especially meaningful in that way - for (band directors and other leaders) and the kids.”
As a high-school senior who just played his last LCMEA band fest, Willoughby South High School’s Frate said that, if he had any advice to give aspiring band members, it would be to savor the few years they have to be in the band, to be diligent and make themselves proud and, most of all, to have fun with it.
“After spending four years in my high school’s marching band, I would say that my advice would be to work hard. Make it something that you’re proud of and enjoy it, because it goes by fast,” he said.