The Siloam Springs High School Marching Band didn't let a rainy season stand in their way of winning third place at the 2018 6A state championship.
The 220-member band earned the award, as well as the highest possible rating of "Superior," during the 2018 Arkansas School Band and Orchestra Association State Marching Championship on Oct. 29 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
"Our season has a story to it," said band director Daniel Hodge. "We had a really good group this year, so when you have talented kids you kind of plan the music around showing their talent off. Our show music was pretty difficult. It took a while to learn it."
The band staff members put together a show titled "Spark of Invention," based on the evolution of light. The performance begins with a depiction of fire, then moves to the invention of the light bulb before ending with more modern uses of light, such as LED, Hodge said.
The music used to communicate the theme included a piece titled "Invention," by Johann Sebastian Bach; "Pure Imagination," from the film "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"; a piece of music originally written for voices by Eric Whitacre, "Lux Aurumque"; and "Light and Gold," by Ellie Goulding.
"We started the process (of learning the show) and then it was just unbelievable, once the school year started, there was just an insane amount of rain, right on the window of time where we rehearse, so there were just many days where we were not able to move forward in the show," Hodge said.
The season continued on with rained-out performances and half-time shows keeping the band from putting the entire performance together. Then the band planned a really long Saturday rehearsal, which was rained out too.
"There was just rain, rain, rain, and so it just kind of put us all behind and there was frustration on the part of everybody, just wanting to get the thing finished," Hodge said.
The band wasn't even able to perform the entire show for the regional assessment in mid-October. Students were able to learn the music but weren't able to put the drill movements together in their entirety because it takes outside space to practice, Hodge explained.
Even so, the band still earned a rating of "Superior" at the regional assessment, held at Har-Ber High School in Springdale, which qualified them for the state competition. "Superior" is the highest of five possible ratings. The regional competition does not rank bands.
The band was finally able to perform the entire show together from beginning to end right before the state competition, Hodge said. The state assessment is highly competitive with judges flown in from other parts of the country, he said.
"We had just finished our show finally, we got it all put together and we were able to basically experience the show how it was meant to be finally, right at the end," he said. "They just really did well and ended up getting the highest rating you could get at the state contest and also third in the state in our classification. ... That was a pretty positive thing for our students and our staff."
The state marching band competition is only three years old and Siloam Springs band has qualified to attend all three years, but this is the first year the band has officially placed, Hodge said. Awards are only given to the top three bands, but Siloam Springs ranked 10th in their class the first year and eighth the second year, he said.
Hearing their name announced in War Memorial Stadium was an amazing experience, Hodge said.
"They were so excited," Hodge said. "They had been to the state contest two years before and we had good scores there but we never placed. It's basically kind of like the Olympics almost, they only give awards for first second or third, and then everybody else, you just get a score, so they really didn't know what to expect because we had just finished the show, it wasn't like they had a great idea of how the judges would score it or interpret what we were doing."
A total of around 65 bands from all Arkansas Activities Association divisions attended the state competition and Siloam Springs was one of only 12 to earn a superior rating, Hodge said. Ratings are different than rankings, so it is possible to earn the highest possible rating but still rank third, he explained.
Hodge credited the band's success, despite the limited practice time, to teamwork among the staff and students. There was a long design process for staff members, he said.
"We worked real hard together to develop that and then to teach the show requires all of us to have equal parts in what we're doing and so it really, truly was a team effort of instruction," he said. "And you know the kids obviously, there are so many of them, they have to learn to work as a team to get everything learned. We have a lot of peer on peer instruction, we have kids that are section leaders and they will have a day where they are teaching maybe 20 members of their section and they are acting like a band director."
Videos of the marching band's winning performance are available on the Siloam Springs High School Band Facebook page.
Band students will also be performing at the Christmas concert, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4.
General News on 12/02/2018