Spending over seven hours a week practicing and perfecting their performance, the UC High Centurion Sound has achieved a score of 78.7 at their championship tournament run at Martin Luther King High School, placing third overall and first in Auxiliary in their Division.
Band Director Brandon Rhinehart said, “Our show this year is entitled Fountain. It’s about the discovery of the fountain of youth, and the journey of finding a connection to that personality inside of you that is your inner child. During the show, there will be songs like ‘Forever Young’ by Alphaville and ‘Young and Beautiful’ by Lana Del Rey. Those songs both talk about being young and developing into a better person in the long term, which I think is a cool way to relate them to the show and help the audience connect on a different level to what we’re doing on the field.”
Visually, the show has two distinct props: palm trees are scattered around the field, created to store color guard equipment, and a hexagonal fountain is placed on the front of the field towards the right side. Created by Technical Director Daniel Gerardi and some of the marching band students, the fountain was constructed with wood for the base, carved styrofoam to imitate rocks, and fake vines intertwined throughout the rocks.
Sophomore Willow Boerner said, “The final run was pretty scary going out onto the field because it was championships, but I think that we all did really well and powered through the performance, giving us a spectacular run. I used to be in the band for most of my freshman year, and I think the fact that we jumped three places in one year despite changing divisions is incredibly impressive. Now as someone in guard, the fact that we made the same push to win first place is really cool, especially seeing as the last time we won High Auxiliary was four years ago. I’m really proud of all of our efforts, especially with the loss of last year’s seniors graduating.”
Band and Color Guard spent their last two weeks of their summer getting ready for the season at what is called Band Camp. Color Guard Co-Captain Junior Gisselle Castellaños said, “The days are long, hence the camp, which runs from nine in the morning to nine in the evening, and we learn typical things that you’ll need throughout the year for guard and band. For the basics, we learn different routines, and for colorguard, we learn some tricks. Eventually, we put everything together to create the choreography for our show. Band Camp is during the summer so it’s very hot and is a lot of work, but it’s really fun.”
According to the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association, bands with one to fifty musical performers are in the 1A Division, and bands with 51 to 70 members are in the 2A Division. This continues until 6A, which is 151 or more musical performers (scsboa.org).
The UC High Centurion Sound dropped from the 2A Division last year to 1A this year, with only 32 musical performers spanning brass, woodwinds, and percussion. Front Ensemble Head Section Leader Junior Kyle Smith said, “We lost about sixteen seniors last year that were super essential to the band, and we would have terribly underperformed without them during our performance last year, A Thousand Cranes. We took them for granted. I would say that this year we have the ability to step up, and I’ve seen my peers step up and fill those gaps that our seniors filled so well.” Despite this change, it’s notable that Division does not equate to skill or score, as Division is only impacted by size.
Sousaphone Player Junior Hayden Andersen spent his summer traveling nationally, going on tour with Gold Drum and Bugle Corps for Drum Corps International. “Having the experience in DCI and being surrounded by staff was very helpful in teaching me how to take feedback and apply it now in marching with UC,” said Andersen.
Castellaños is a soloist for this year’s show in the last movement, spinning rifle on the fountain prop. “On our big fountain prop, there’s a set of stairs leading up into the fountain, and during the last movement of our show, I take my rifle, go onto the fountain and stand on the edge. I do some rifle choreography and I direct the audience to the other performers while I get off of the prop. I think that the solo is great but also a little scary, as most solos are. It’s stressful but also really exciting to be out there and think ‘Yeah, I’m doing my own thing.’ The thing with solos that makes them great is that you can truly make it yours, since it’s your solo, not anyone else’s,” said Castellaños.