The neighborhood around White Oak Elementary School has been a music-filled place in recent weeks.
The reason? McKeesport Area High School Marching Band has been hard at work putting its fall show together, with musicians and auxiliary band members practicing their respective parts.
Everything has to be ready when the band rolls out this year's show —“Revolution” — at Friday's first home football game of the season.
Similar routines have been playing out all over the region. Soon the days will grow noticeably shorter and cooler and the sound of drums, brass and woodwinds will be heard at football games, band shows and parades all over the Mon Valley and beyond.
During a recent practice session with the MAHS band, senior mellophone player Hannah Jones said she thinks the 75-member marching unit will be ready.
“We're better than we actually thought,” she said, noting this year's rookie squad was the largest she could recall. In terms of seeing the show take shape, she said, “We are moving so fast.”
Her friend and fellow senior Casey Wash, who plays trumpet, agreed.
“This is when we start having fun,” she said.
MAHS band director Karen Cole said students have the revolution inspired theme of the show and its jazzy numbers. The band took up quarters in White Oak this season because of the ongoing construction project on the high school campus. It's an arrangement that has worked out pretty well, said Cole, who noted there is more green space and shade at the elementary school.
Cole said this year's group is enthusiastic.
“They're just going to town,” she said.
What's the band show coming to your town? Here is a sampling of some of the local shows coming in the season ahead.
Clairton
Clairton High School will be “Rocking through the Ages” whenever the band takes the field. The show includes classic rockers like “Carry On Wayward Son” and Bon Jovi's “Dead Or Alive” and get-out-of-your seat numbers like “Everybody Dance Now.” There's also a Bruno Mars tune thrown in the mix.
Band director Dave Geckle said the goal in creating the show was to touch on all the recent decades to engage the whole audience.
With 32 members – 10 of them auxiliary Honeybears – the marching unit is about the same size as last year. The band will travel to the Yough High School band show on Sept. 20. The first home football game is Sept. 5.
East Allegheny
The 50th anniversary of The Beatles coming to America is being celebrated by East Allegheny High School's marching band.
Band director Justin Roscoe said the performance will include snippets of “Magical Mystery Tour” and “A Hard Day's Night.” Junior Nathon Nicholson will play a trombone solo in “Something” and the whole band will do a swing dance routine in “Can't Buy Me Love.”
The 40-member unit, which includes 10 color guard members directed by Amanda Roscoe and Lee Kumer, will perform on the Tournament of Bands circuit and host its home show on Sept. 13. Their first home football game is Sept. 5.
Elizabeth Forward
The band at Elizabeth Forward High School is hoping crime pays with their Tournament of Bands competition show “Smooth Criminal.”
Band director Joseph Scheller said the show will feature great cops-and-robbers rockers like “Break on Through,” “Take the Money and Run,” and Pink Floyd's “Money” — and some serious props and drama.
“I think it's going to be a fun show,” Scheller said.
Noteworthy musicians this year include sophomore trumpeter Kendrick Berg, who'll switch to electric cello for the Michael Jackson song from which the show gets its name, and drum majors Rachael Penick and Emily Wardropper.
The 60-member marching unit hosts its home show on Sept. 20 and the first home football game is Sept. 5. The band is planning to march at Fort Ligonier Days and the WPXI Holiday Parade in Pittsburgh.
McKeesport Area
You say you want a “Revolution”? McKeesport Area's band hopes to have one this year with a song set designed to pay tribute to the French and American revolutions and Emancipation.
MAHS band director Karen Cole said band members have embraced jazzy renditions of songs from “Les Misérables,” a fife-and-drum piece and the gospel number “Wade in the Water.”
The band will perform on the Tournament of Bands competitive circuit this year and host a home show on Oct. 11.
Norwin
Norwin's 150-member marching unit will demonstrate musically and on the field what happens “When Worlds Collide.” The show includes a selection of contrasting sights and sounds. The classical movements “Venus” and “Jupiter” by Gustav Holst are in the mix that also includes “Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys.
“It's about conflict and learning about other groups,” is how band director Timothy Daniels describes the show. “It tells a story through the color scheme on the field.”
The band is competing on the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association circuit and hosts its home show on Sept. 27. The band plays its first home football game on Friday.
Serra Catholic
Serra Catholic plans to deliver a show featuring music from Disney's “Frozen.”
Band director Elizabeth Hazlet said girls in the band were onboard with the idea right away but it took the boys a little longer to embrace the theme. Alas, she said, the whole group has embraced the concept and “They're having a lot of fun.”
The fun includes an on-field Olaf the Snowman and a flag routine featuring three shades of purple. Hazlet said Penn Trafford's band deserves many thanks for lending Serra the flags.
The marching unit has 36 total members, 25 of them musicians.
The band plays its first home football game on Friday. On Oct. 25, the band will play the national anthem at a Duquesne University football game.
South Allegheny
The name of the show is simply “Floyd.”
South Allegheny band director Jessica Humenic said parents in the stands probably won't need much more than that to understand it's a show of Pink Floyd music.
However, she said teen musicians in the band weren't entirely hip to the classic British rock band when she first presented the idea.
“It's pretty funny,” she said. “They were like, ‘We really don't know much about them.'”
Since then, the show, which includes songs like “Money,” “Welcome to the Machine” and “Another Brick in the Wall” has grown on the 85-member unit. The show includes an electric guitar solo from alto sax player Falco Muscante and a return of lighted drums, which debuted last year.
The home band festival is on Sept. 6, one day after the band plays the first halftime show.
Steel Valley
Director Mike Sisley and the 43-member marching unit should be game day favorites this year when they perform “Super Mario Bros.”
The show includes music adapted from Nintendo video games. “It's not a game when you come to marching band competition because we compete to win,” Sisley said.
The band's home show is Sept. 6. The first home halftime show is Friday.
Thomas Jefferson
“Music through the Decades” is designed to take listeners through from the 1960s to the present, high school band director James Mirabella said.
“Magical Mystery Tour,” “Disco Inferno,” Living on a Prayer,” start a set list that ends with music by Fall Out Boy and The Offspring.
“We entertain,” Mirabella said. “We play to the parents in the stands.”
The marching unit is comprised of 92 musicians and 34 auxiliary members. Mirabella said this year's band has a lot of strong young members. Standout members include senior drum major Gracie Duda, majorette captains Alyssa Angotti and Rachel Valentino and color guard captains Mallory Opferman and Devin Tomino.
The first home football game is this Friday and the home band show is Oct. 4.
West Mifflin Area
Singer-songwriters and storytellers might seem an unlikely muse for a band show at first glance but West Mifflin Area band director Jeff Kesser makes it all work.
“Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting” by Elton John, Elvis Presley's “Hound Dog” and “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon are a few of the tunes the 125-member marching band plans to use to gain field presence this year.
“We're here to entertain the football crowd,” said Kesser, who's band will get their first chance to do that at home on Sept. 5.
Some of the veterans on the squad this year include Starlet captains Paige Marecic and Maura Anderson, silk captains Abby Popa and Courtney Giffort and drum majors Alexia Marzina, Robert Nelson and Kelly Wieczorkowski.
Eric Slagle is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161 ext. 1966, or eslagle@tribweb.com.
