Bands shine for Knight of Champions

All the musicianship and pageantry that goes into competitive marching bands took the field on Saturday during Prospect High School's annual Knight of Champions.

Two dozen bands competed from Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane and Will counties as well as two bands from downstate schools and one from Davenport, Iowa.

A pair of Southwest suburban high schools won two out of the three divisions. Lincoln Way East in Frankfort won Class AAA for the largest bands participating, while Lincoln Way West in New Lenox won Class A.

Downers Grove South High School won Class AA, leading a trio of DuPage County schools to earn top honors, including Waubonsie Valley's Marching Warriors in second and Wheaton Warrenville South which placed third.

Among larger schools in Class AAA, Plainfield North finished second followed by Hersey High School in Arlington Heights in third.

The Marching Griffins from Lincoln Way East were among some of the bands that featured classical music in their new field show. Their winning program, “unravel,” drew its musical influence from the orchestral piece “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel.

Hersey's Marching Huskies marched to the powerful music of Peter Tchaikovsky. Its program incorporated Russian dances and royal processions into the classical music from Tchaikovsky's fourth and fifth symphonies.

“It's the most challenging show we've done,” says Director Scott Casagrande. “It's technically difficult and visually challenging as well. We're midway through our season, and the kids are really starting to execute it right now.”

Wheaton Warrenville South's marching band offered the crowd an entirely different type of show with a program woven around the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts,” featured in Aaron Copland's modern composition “Appalachian Suite.”

“In one way or another, everyone has heard this hymn,” said Director Vic Scimeca. “It goes over really well in our community of Wheaton.”

With no props, the program instead showcased the students' musicianship as well as the drill design and color guard choreography. Its middle movement features a unique feature, when the band turns its back to the audience and plays to the backfield, with no drum major or percussion section to guide it. The difficult section earned high marks from the music judges.

“We work on that two-minute piece of music every single day,” Scimeca added.

Dallas Niemeyer, former Hersey High School band director and one of the music and visual effects judges, said he saw marked improvement from the bands.

“The programs are taking big steps forward,” Niemeyer said. “There's much more depth musically in their programs.”

How they finished:

Class AAA: Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort; Plainfield North High School; John Hersey of Arlington Heights; Lemont High School; Romeoville High School; Davenport (Iowa) Central and Maine West High School in Des Plaines.

Class AA: Downers Grove South High School; Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora; Wheaton Warrenville South High School; Lincoln-Way Central of New Lenox; Batavia High School; Naperville Central High School; Elk Grove High School; Lakes Community High School, Lake Villa; Oak Park-River Forest High School; and Herscher High School in Kankakee County.

Class A: Lincoln-Way West High School, New Lenox; Wheaton North High School; Sandwich (Ill.) High School; Alan B. Shepard High School of Palos Heights; Providence Catholic High School of New Lenox; Reavis High School in Burbank; and Elgin High School.

The Prospect High School Marching Knights were the host school and did not compete but performed their show at the end as an exhibition.