Syracuse, N.Y. — The curtain is about to rise on several new marching band shows across the state.
Competitive performances start tonight, with bands hoping to peak just in time for the New York State Field Band Conference championships on Oct. 27 in the JMA Wireless Dome.
In Section III, East Syracuse Minoa gets things started by hosting a Spartan Spectacular that includes Indian River, Syracuse, Oswego, New Hartford and Liverpool.Jordan-Elbridge will host a Sounds of Autumn show that includes Auburn, Westmoreland, West Genesee, Baldwinsville and Cicero-North Syracuse. The Northstars are the two-time defending state titlists in the National Division.
Syracuse.com polled every band director in Section III about the show they have selected for their performers and for a brief preview of what it entails. Here are the responses we got:
Auburn
The show: “Voyage to Valhalla”
The preview: “Our design team and I selected this show to highlight the strengths of our team and do a show theme Auburn has never done before. Our show tells the story of a Viking’s journey through battle and out to sea to Valhalla.” — Erin Coughlin
Baldwinsville
The show: “Red Swan”
The preview: “It’s an original concept, which is something we take pride in. It’s the 50th anniversary of the Baldwinsville marching band this year. So I thought doing a show that would be reflective of that a little bit. Our school colors appear throughout it, sort of organically. It’s about a transformation, that our program has gone through, which I think is kind of cool. It’s about going from a white swan to a black swan to a red swan.“In any given year I have a lot of ideas. The ideas I have now might be a show three years from now. That’s kind of how it goes. This concept was there, and it just felt like the right time for it as I started pulling on the threads. Musically, I thought it was great. It’s got music from the Russian composer Shostakovich. I’ve always wanted to do his music and we never have. It’s got an 80s song in it, a Tears for Fears song, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World, which actually features a vocalist. I’ve never done that before.” — Casey Vanderstouw
Central Square
The show: “Reflection”
The preview: “We’re going to have some reflective props out there that will help. The guard uniform is going to have some reflective materials on it. The flags are going to have some reflective materials. And there’s a voice-over that you’ll hear to talk about the non-physical reflections, the mental reflections. We figured it’s something that, I don’t want to say it’s easy to portray, but it’s right there. People know what a reflection is.” — Mark Woods
Cicero-North Syracuse
The show: “Medusa”
The preview: “We love to do a lot of cool visuals, and we really like to tell a story with our shows. So this year our show is Medusa. It basically tells the story of Medusa and how she started out as a beautiful priestess and was turned into a terrible monster. We go through that transformation, from beginning to end. We set the tone with the Greek outfits and costumes at the beginning. We have a staircase and columns to kind of play off the idea of the temple of Athena. And there’s some narration that goes through that helps to tell the story.
“You see her going from a priestess doing her work and then going into the whole idea of her and Poseidon together. You’ll see the Poseidon manifest through water things. We’re actually having our woodwind spin some flags that have the trident on them. There’ll be a little battle with our Medusa from our color guard with a flute player who’s going to be playing Poseidon. You’ll see that battle and then you see the turn into the monster and you’ll see all the snake themes and things come out at the end.” — Karen SeamansEast Syracuse Minoa
The show: Mercury
The preview: “Our show combines music from Freddie Mercury with Holst’s “The Planets.” We chose this show because our group is growing and I wanted to give them more of a challenge musically this season. Also, selfishly, this music is fantastic, and will be fun for the whole season.” — Anthony Veiga
Indian River
The show: “La Llorona”
The preview: “The colorguard staff had found this piece and floated it to our team. The draw was the cultural elements, the mystery and darkness of the story of “La Llorona,” as well as the fun several generations could have with the nostalgic music. La Llorona, or the weeping woman, is a heavy concept. It’s a deeply routed story in the Latin American culture (as well as similar concepts around the globe). It involves a lot of emotion and some versions of the story or experiences people share can be downright frightening.
“We plan to demonstrate the grieving process of La Llorona, as she first experiences immense pain caused by the sadness of her husband leaving her, bargaining through a manic state as she deals with the consequences of her decisions, anger, and eventually ending in a more pure note of realizing what love was all along. It is set in a river (apt for our school name) and we are excited to have a parent join us again for prop building so that we can get some physical height for performers this year on a bridge.” — Tricia Pierce
Jordan-Elbridge
The show: “Why So Serious?”
The preview: “It takes place in Gotham City. It’s about the relationship between the Joker and Harley Quinn. And we could say it’s a very complicated, toxic at times, relationship between those two. The music is very sinister yet playful yet chaotic. And it takes you through a ride all the way through Gotham City. Our goals are always that we win, we entertain the audience, and the kids have fun. We try to do them in that order. So we always try to pick a show that’s more in the entertainment realm rather than a cookie-cutter, boring show. And this one really fits the mold for all the things we want to achieve.” — Dan English
Liverpool
The show: “Parkour”
The preview: “That one spoke to us as far as being something that would be super competitive but a whole lot of fun at the same time. I can’t speak to the competition yet, but the kids are having a blast with it. It’s kind of derived from acrobatics and gymnastics and things of that nature. The main thing is to kind of be within the flow and you kind of make it your own.” — James Dumas
Oswego
The show: “Red”
The preview: “It’s the story of Red Riding Hood that starts being told from the wolf’s perspective at the beginning. And then as the story goes along Red starts to realize what happened, normal stuff with Red Riding Hood. But then in our version, Red realizes what’s happened and starts to seek vengeance on the wolf. So we’re kind of taking a little bit of a dark spin.
“I wanted something that told a story because I feel like that’s really a good thing for students to be able to connect to. Plus teenagers like dark stories, so I thought we’d have some fun with it.” — Kim Miller
Phoenix
The show: “Duality”
The preview: “Duality explores the idea of opposites coexisting and how they shape our lives. Through music and visuals, the show depicts contrasting elements like light and dark, or inner conflict and resolution. Each segment showcases how these opposites interact and sometimes merge, reflecting the complexity of human experience. The finale celebrates the beauty of unity in diversity, showing how embracing our differences can lead to harmony and strength.” — John Bird
Rome Free Academy
The show: “The Flying Dutchman”
The preview: “This theme was chosen to give a contrasting, darker show to last year’s. It tells a more concrete story and features specific characters that the audience will get to follow throughout the show. The field will be set up as the Flying Dutchman itself, and the students will represent members of the crew. Certain individuals will stand out amongst the others depending on their role on the ship (for example, the captain of the ship will look considerably different from the other crew members). The story follows a woman named Jenny who suddenly finds herself aboard the ship, curious as to why she is there. As she explores around, she eventually encounters the ghostly members of the crew as well as their captain. I will not give any spoilers from there. Just know that we plan for it to be a suspenseful roller coaster ride for the audience’s emotions.” — Stephen Russell
Syracuse
The show: “First Light Rising”
Preview: “It’s that first year to tell everybody who were are. And we are Syracuse. We’re not Henninger. We’re not Fowler. We’re not just the students. We’re a community. The best way is through this beautiful theme. If we’re designing our uniforms, if we’re coming out for the first time, we’re defining ourselves. So this is our defining year. Now here we are and this is who we are.“The field design will represent the city. One of the pieces is called ‘Salina Street’ so we’re going to have Salina Street on the field. A little pathway that everyone will march across. Our color guard will be dancing on it. And then we mark three of our main places. One of our main places is the Landmark Theater. We’re fine arts, so we might as well talk about where music or theater is produced. We have voiceovers, so we’ll actually have voices speaking, kind of narrating, really quick 20-second segments introducing the colors (of the Syracuse flag). The other segment is ‘Syracuse means to me,’ and we’re going to have our seniors write something up and pick up three to five little, quick one-word descriptions of Syracuse.” — Holly McCoy
West Genesee
The show: Carnival
The preview: “It’s almost as if ‘The Greatest Showman’ realized Beetlejuice was in his circus. It features some traditional circus music, some original music, Bach, and some music from Beetlejuice. We chose this show because it has a lot of fun potential, we thought the concept was unique (at least for us) and we have the perfect band for it.” — Kevin Dimmel