For Linn-Mar High School senior Brenna O’Hara, synchronizing movement with fellow band members is only part of the process.
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The sixth annual festival is a fundraiser for the Legacy High School Marching Band and will feature 26 bands from across Colorado and one from New Mexico. the Legacy band will perform but will not compete.
The uniforms, consisting of jackets, pants, and hats with plumes are valued at $300 each. The other schools with bands in Glen Ridge’s section included Belleville High School and Passaic Valley High School.
Prior to receiving the uniforms, East had been wearing red shirts with polo shirts. In the 1960s, drummer and bandleader Buddy Rich did a jazz arrangement of several pieces from Leonard Bernstein’s score; Rich’s “West Side Story Medley” is being featured as the GRHS marching band’s showpiece for this season.
These two groups bring a lot experience and fun to each and every event they participate in. “We take that assessment and make ourselves better from that”.
Gage became the new band director this year following the departure of Kevin Lagos.
“It’s a matter of making sure you look good as a whole and it’s not always about the individual in a marching band”, the mellophone player said “Then it also is because everyone needs to know their stuff in order for the performance to proceed as well as it possibly could”.
For the last 14 years, Gage has mostly taught band at the collegiate level, including at William Paterson University.
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This year’s lineup will be slightly different, as organizers have added other bands to the program. The entire band has been working hard to ideal the show which includes a handsome handbell arrangement.
