By Tom Rohrer
As music enthusiasts know, there is nothing quite like the full sound of a well-rehearsed, in-tune marching band.
On Saturday, Oct. 12, Tumwater School District Stadium, on the campus of Tumwater High School, will be full of sound. Sixteen high schools from across the region will perform and compete in the eighth annual Tumwater Marching Band Festival.
The festival, which will begin at 9 a.m., serves as a fundraiser for the Tumwater High School music program, and allows participating schools to perform in a judged competition.
For the students and band directors involved, the festival offers a way for ensembles to measure up against other schools in a competitive environment.
“I’m a very competitive person and this type of competition is very fun,” said North Thurston High School senior Emily Arend, one of two drum majors for the NTHS marching band. “We want to see what we’re better at than other bands.”
“They like it because it gives them something to measure up to,” said Black Hills High School band director Andrew Landowski, now in his sixth year as instructor at the school. “Of course they like watching other school’s shows. It’s competitive in a healthy way. We want everybody to do well. The students know how much time goes into putting field drills together.”
Much like high school sports teams, the bands begin preparing for competitions in the summer, prior to the start of school. This preparation involves band camps, rehearsals after school and practicing on personal time.
The demands of learning such field drills require both mental and physical stamina.
“We start rehearsing music right before school gets out, in June. Then the kids work on it at home. We have four sectionals during July, which are about 90 minutes at a time in small groups divided by instruments,” said Darren Johnson, who has been the band director at North Thurston High School for 18 years. “The first full week of August, we rehearse for a full day. Then its two and a half hours each day following that week until school starts. During school, we spend an hour a day every morning. And Wednesday evenings, it’s two and a half hours outside of school.”
“I spend an hour a day preparing individually. In the beginning, it’s memorizing all the different notes,” said Black Hills high school senior band member Reese Maultsby, the percussion section leader for the band. “When we start learning drill sets, I go over those in my head and double check to make sure I know where I am going. I really focus on that part.”
At the festival, each band will perform twice; once in the preliminary round, and once more in the final round. In the preliminary rounds, each ensemble competes in a division based on band size. In the later round, the bands perform in order of lowest score to highest. The eight judges selected to monitor and grade the performances are from a variety of locations across the region, meaning that judging will not be biased towards a particular school or area.
Mike Landowski, Andrew’s father, is the president and chairperson of the Tumwater Marching Band Festival, and has noticed an improvement in the field drills since the festival’s inception. So too has Peter Klinzman, the director of the Tumwater High School band since 1997.
“In some cases they have taken the performances up a notch. Some have been elaborate and you just see that the kids and the directors are really trying to push it to the next level,” said Mike Landowski, who was behind the creation of the event. “It’s just really, really entertaining.”
“I would say the bands that compete are very competitive, and there is always a high level of performance going on at these shows,” said Klinzman, who instructed all of Mike Landowski’s sons in the Tumwater High School band. “The bands work hard and it shows.”
Klinzman, Johnson and Andrew Landowski all use a selection process to pick the music suitable for a field drill. Then they hire an expert to arrange a routine to coincide with the songs. The next step is motivating the students to learn the necessary notes and movements in order to perfect the field drill.
“There are no benchwarmers, which may be the best thing about band, but also the most difficult thing,” said Andrew Landowski, who remains close friends with Klinzman, his former teacher. “Every student is responsible for being at every rehearsal. How someone performs affects everybody else in the band.”
At the Tumwater Marching Band Festival, bands compete for the Frank Minear Sweepstakes Award, which is given to the most outstanding band as selected by the judging panel.
Minear, a graduate of the University of Washington, taught in Seattle area schools before taking over as band director at Tumwater High School in 1987. In 1997, Minear was the first band director at Black Hills High School, a post he occupied until his death in 2004. A member of the Stan Kenton Big Band in the early 1970s, Minear was one of the most talented and respected musicians in the area.
“He was a marvelous musician, with just a very long connection to music on the west-side of the state,” said Klinzman, who took over for Minear as band director at Tumwater in 1997. He played in and around the Pacific Northwest for thirty years. He was the consummate musician, and we were very close friends.”
Since the event’s inception in 2006, admission prices have remained the same ($10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, children under ten are admitted free) and attendance has risen each year.
For a music program that has faced budget cuts in the past like Tumwater’s, the fundraiser part of the band festival is extremely important.
“We take a certain percentage of the profits and it goes directly to the band,” said Klinzman. “This can mean music, hardware, instructors, and musical arrangements for field drills.”
Mike Landowski believes increased emphasis on band programs is extremely important, and this event allows the community to see another side of high school music.
“Students in band are high-achievers, the individuals that go on to careers in medicine, law and engineering,” said Mike Landowski, whose three sons are each Eagle Scouts. “Band teaches discipline, responsibility and being put outside of your comfort zone.”
“Having a festival like this, it shows great embrace of the music programs,” added Landowski. “It’s exciting, and younger kids see the example the older kids are setting. They’re seeing role models involved in something positive.”
For the actual students involved in the festival, they get the opportunity to meet new people and see how they differentiate from other bands.
“It’s a great way to meet others that like doing what we like doing,” said Maultsby. “There’s a lot of different concepts, different shows and different people.”
“I’m a complete band nerd and just seeing these crazy band people come together is awesome,” said Arend. “I’m totally invested into our show and for three months, that’s the only band and only show I’ve known. To see all the new performances is really cool. You feel a connection with everybody there.”
The Tumwater Marching Band Festival will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday Oct. 12, and will likely run until about 9 p.m. the same night. Concessions will be available for sale throughout the event. Purchasing a ticket to the event allows individuals to come and go throughout the day.
For more information on the Tumwater Marching Band Festival, click here.
