The Edmond Memorial High School marching band had their second competition this season at Mustang High School on Oct. 1st. Since the summer, they have been learning and producing this year’s show, “Dawn of Hope.” The show’s vague theme is about coming out of the darkness and can be interpreted uniquely by each individual’s experiences.

The band had two total performances, prelims and finals, but the audience believed their final production stood out from the rest. They placed third in the 3A class behind Westmoore High School and Deer Creek High School for their first performance. This was a surprise for many of the students but most likely motivated them for a better performance in the evening.

A final score of 78.25 and second place overall left many people wondering how they did so much better in finals.

“I think we just performed better – not only our execution but our emotional commitment and engagement,” assistant director Kevin Mcdonald said.

Another big factor was when Colton Hines (the band’s music writer) talked to the band about what they were doing right and wrong, showing them ways to fix their weaknesses and grow even stronger.

Hines also worked throughout the day, making last minute changes to improve the show visually.

“The guard added a new move at the end of part three where they went to the front of the field,” sophomore bass drum Ethan Confer said. “They added that between prelims and finals, which is super impressive.”

A noticeable difference from last year is the director’s teaching philosophy. Focusing on placement has not been a worry this year, but striving to achieve excellence and having fun on the field is the main purpose of the program.

“Placing well in prelims means performing for the largest possible audience at finals, and those crowds want to applaud excellence,” McDonald said. “It’s in the sharing of that excellence that performer and audience communicate what we all like about music. Once you’ve accomplished that, placements often seem trivial.”

The next weeks will be the toughest for the band as they finish the show and prepare for their state contest in Tulsa.

“Over the next few weeks, we need to keep the band entertained with as much content and reps as possible so we don’t plateau,” junior drum major Simon Hollrah said.

Their next contest is the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association 6A contest (the state contest) on Oct, 29th at Broken Arrow High School as they compete against all of the other schools their size.

Contact Ian Humphreys at [email protected]