Bands gear up for big events
A pair of Northwest suburban marching bands look to go head-to-head today at the state's largest tournament, the Illini Marching Band Festival in Champaign.
Forty-six high school bands are heading to Memorial Stadium for a competition that includes a parade division and field show.
Marching bands from Prospect and Hersey high schools will have to wait until the very end of the program, however, to compete. Their final seeding is based on their one-two finish in the Class AA field show last year, when Hersey edged Prospect for the first time.
But the Illini competition is only half the story today.
Eighteen other bands are traveling to Frankfurt for the Lincoln-Way Invitational Field Show, hosted by Lincoln-Way East High School -- last weekend's grand champion at Prospect High School's competition.
Local schools include: Wheeling, Round Lake, Downers Grove South, Wheaton Warrenville South, Naperville Central, Warren and Glenbrook North high schools.
Throughout the fall, marching bands have been traveling to competitions.
Their season is winding down, with the events this weekend leading up to Oct. 27 and the State of Illinois Invitational High School Marching Band Championship in Normal.
In Champaign today, Hersey will perform "The Choral Music of John Rutter," an update of an arrangement done by the Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps in the early 1990s.
"It's a very exciting show," says Scott Casagrande, Hersey band director.
Prospect's Marching Knights will incorporate some drum and bugle corps influences too, when they perform "Marching Metamorphosis."
It features a mix of famous marches, from Sousa to Tchaikovsky, but presented in a more contemporary way.
"As simple a it sounds, we just try to put on the best performance we're capable of, each time we take the field," says Chris Barnum, Prospect's second year band director.
The Illini festival comes on the heels of Prospect's Knight of Champions held last weekend, where both Elk Grove and Fremd high schools won their respective classes.
For Fremd, it was the second class title in as many competitions. Its program is called "Gangsta' Jazz" and has a story line similar to "West Side Story," with a big swing dance number and a "fight" between rival gangs.
At the Prospect competition, Elk Grove won four class awards, including outstanding visuals, music, percussion and general effect, on their way to winning their class. The band performed under director Ron Fiorito in a program called "The Machines."
Looking very much like a cutting edge drum and bugle corps show, the Grenadiers showcased their woodwinds and percussion, while marching in a drill formation that had them rotating like gears, and making robotic movements.
"We're thrilled," Fiorito says at the win. "And it couldn't have come at a better time. Excitement in our marching band program is at an all-time high."