NRHEG Marching Band concluded season Oct. 28

“These kids aren’t active only in band,” declared NRHEG band director Seth Schaefer. “They’re in knowledge bowl, they’re on sports teams, they have jobs. Along with all that, they’re willing to make a commitment to band and its activities, and to continue building their skill as musicians.”

 

Marching Band completed its season with the group’s October 28 concert, which featured members dressed in the group’s red and black matching uniforms, spreading out to fill the high school gym floor and rearranging themselves according to the tone and rhythm of many of the songs. Numbers performed during the concert included the Star-Spangled Banner, “Paint, It Black,” “Land of 1,000 Dances,” “25 or 6 to 4,” “The Horse,” “Smoke on the Water,” the NRHEG School Song, and “Apache.”

 

Grace Starman, 2024-’25 drum major, directed the “marching” numbers.

 

Across the north wall of the gym were themed posters created by members of the different sections of the band. The saxophones declared, “We’re Saxy and we know it,” while the trombonists threatened, “Be nice, or I’ll empty my spit valve on you.”

 

Schaefer announced that a major accomplishment for the musicians’ season was taking second place with strong scores in their division at the Waseca Marching Classic in September. Group members have also been providing live music at various home athletic competitions as a “pep band” throughout the past two months.

 

He called the audience’s attention to a new set of posters, which, much like those prepared for varsity members of various sports teams, featured each of the band’s seniors: Drum major Grace Starman, Carter Schlaak, Jadyn Tonkin, Reilly Weitzel, and Madi Langfitt. The posters will be displayed on the south wall of the gym, he said, when staff has the opportunity to put them up.

 

All this while the group continues to be “homeless”; that is, the band room at the high school is still waiting to be restored after a complication occurred this past summer when the room was disassembled for the sake of removing some asbestos insulation installed during its original construction in the 1950s. Band members have been using the school stage as their base of operations and have been practicing in the school gym.

 

Schaefer mentioned there have been donations to the music department’s clothing drive: gently used black clothing items are being accepted to ensure all band members have access to the appropriate dress for concert performances, and “backups, just in case they’re needed sometime.” He encouraged audience members to consider also contributing.