Band season concluded with the Tournament of the Bands on Nov. 2, where passionate high school students competed for the grand championship.
Micheal Pick is a student from The Pride of New Mexico Marching Band, who participated in Bands of America and TOB when he attended Organ Mountain High School.
He talked about his past experiences, how exhilarating it was playing in front of people, and how it felt to be judged.
“Even though we practiced for it for our whole year, we’re practicing to play at this competition. It’s still exhilarating being able to show what I learned, and being able to, like, play good, I guess.” Pick said. “I mean, it’s just, it’s just a fun thing, and having that performance high is, it’s like, it’s totally different than anything else that I’ve ever experienced’”.
Most Pride members participated in TOB prior to joining the marching band, like Elias Merchant who played for the Las Cruces High School marching band.
“The Pride is a fantastic environment. We really enjoy hosting this every year and yeah that’s my it’s my fourth and final year of being in this organization, and I really enjoyed every, every piece of it,” Merchant said.
Steven Smyth, associate director of bands and music education coordinator, recalled how he was able to meet bands in early September, and how much they have improved since then. He noted how for most of the bands, this is the end of their marching season, which is why the event was so important to NMSU and the community.
“It’s a way that NMSU can support our community. It’s a way that NMSU gets to bring over 3,000 kids on campus and 7,000 parents, and they get to witness the Pride of New Mexico, because we run it and they get to meet all the students and they get a chance to really experience what makes New Mexico State is and it’s awesome,” Smyth said.
Each band’s performance is judged based on overall performance, music, visuals, and general effects. Each show lasted approximately 15 minutes, each band telling a story through music.
The bands started the competition for preliminaries at 9:30 a.m., with most of the high school students as recurring contestants.
Charlotte Gross, a senior member of the color guard at Alamogordo High School, expressed how she felt both nervous and excited to perform. She said her freshman year, she realized it was one of the biggest events of the year, but that she overcame her nervousness with her excitement to perform.
Their school performed “Force of Nature,” which was focused on telling the story of different parts of nature.
“It’s about being like people, like in the in the nature. The first movement is about being like the sunset, seeing the beautiful mountains. And the second movement is about the storm coming in. The third movement is more about like, seeing what happens after the storm. And then the last movement is kind of like, like frisky and dark, almost like very ambitious.” Gross said.
Each team’s performance portrayed a different story, from old stories like Hansel and Gretel, to more modern takes like Looney Tunes.
Linda Hawkins Popp and Maryhea Malevoski Wright were former Pride members who came to see the event, who were part of the program in 1977. They talked about how band has been such an integral part of their lives.
“[It] was important to be here today, and both of us, you can see, are handicapped, and we’re going to come no matter what. And this is my first time in this thing, and here we are,” Hawkins Popp said.
The Grand Champion of TOB was Hank High School from El Paso, Texas. For the rest of the results head to the TOB website or find them on Instagram @nmsubands.
