Power & Class

3,000 in tune with Band Day

October 14, 2007

Close to 16,000 spectators is an entirely different prospect than a couple of hundred. Just ask Stephanie Lalonde, 17, a bell player with the Minnechaug Regional High School marching band, one of about 3,000 middle and high school musicians to swarm the University of Massachusetts yesterday.

“This is a little intimidating,” Lalonde, of Hampden, said as she snapped her hat under her chin. “But it’s really fun at the same time.”

Students came from across the Northeast and beyond to take part in the university’s 23rd annual Band Day.

From his perch atop a 16-foot ladder, UMass Minuteman Marching Band director George Parks led a football field full of wide-eyed percussionists, horn players, baton twirlers and other marching band staples through “A Whole New World” with apparent ease.

“We need a much bigger accent on that downbeat!” he bellowed into a microphone, before segueing into the infectious “Oye Como Va” - composed in 1963 in Cuba by Latin jazz and mambo legend Tito Puente, but popularized by Carlos Santana’s 1970 version on the “Abraxas” album - and demanding every last student bop with the beat.

Participants receive the sheet music ahead of time, but come together to practice for around three hours before taking the field with the Minuteman band after yesterday’s football game.

“We want to show kids it’s cool to be in band,” Parks said during a break, adding that just three bands showed up for the first Band Day over two decades ago. Coordinator Nicholas J. McKenzie estimated 67 bands attended. These included a color guard member and an alto saxophone player from Japan.

“They’re quite a duo,” said McKenzie, a mellophone player with the UMass marching band. He describes his instrument as a “trumpet on steroids.”

The Minuteman band is a 375-member award-winning marching band. Parks said it is likely the largest in the Northeast, where marching bands are not as prevalent.

The university marching band plays throughout the fall and winter and serves as an energy-boost at half-time. Many members portray the band as a hard-scrabble ensemble that sleeps on gymnasium floors before away games and survives on a $6-per-day food budget.

Michael Monteiga, assistant director of the Weymouth Wildcats Marching Band, said his students were so excited to attend, one gravely ill teen stubbornly staggered onto the bus yesterday - only to have his mother collect him at a rest stop later.

“They’re pretty excited … it’s catchy. This is a really good tool to get them pumped about doing stuff like this,” said Monteiga, a drummer.

Hilary L. Finnegan, 17, a saxophone player with the Weymouth band, also considered playing for an audience of thousands yesterday as opposed to the regular crowd of a few hundred at high school games.

“Yeah, so that’s wicked different,” she said.

By STEPHANIE BARRY
Springfield Republican
October 14, 2007