High school bands square off
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
They've sweat. They've burned. They've encountered fields so damp and trampled that the mud encrusts them to their knees. But they've kept moving.
And now the marching bands of 12 O'ahu high schools — more than 900 musicians and performers — are ready to show their stuff tomorrow at the 7th annual Mililani Bandfest.
Marching to the music
The bands performing are 'Aiea, Waialua, Kailua, Farrington, Roosevelt, Kapolei, Iolani, Kahuku, Kalani, Kamehameha, Moanalua and Mililani.
Mililani High School, which is hosting the event, will perform but will not be competing, said Mililani band director Fred Murphy.
"We're getting the judges, so it wouldn't be fair," he said.
Murphy said the bands have been preparing since mid-summer, practicing two or three days a week for 3 1/2 hours per session.
Practice, he said, is the only way to get it right.
"The music is demanding," he said, requiring students to perform at a higher level than they had encountered in middle school.
"But the marching makes it even more challenging — moving around, contorting your body, making sure your horn presses forward while you're moving backward and at an angle."
Murphy said sometimes the musicians get so involved in remembering their individual moves that they don't realize how they look as a unit until they get in front of an audience.
"They reach an impact moment in the show, and the audience claps and yells — and it surprises them," he said. "They realize they are really doing something.
"We show them video," he said, "and they say, 'Wow, I didn't know we looked that good.' "
Joanne Inouye, a secretary at Mililani and a member of the Mililani Band Boosters, said watching the band members return from practice — sunburned, dehydrated, covered with mud churned up by the football team in an earlier practice session — clearly demonstrates the level of dedication and perseverance they develop.
The performances in this year's competition are diverse and inspiring, she said.
"Kalani features songs from Greece; they do a really good job of it," she said. "We do classical. Moanalua does a space theme. They play Amazing Grace, and they have panels they raise during show: posters with (Challenger astronaut) Ellison Onizuka, the Challenger, the NASA logo ..."
"Its really chicken skin."
The Band Boosters, Murphy said, organize and promote the event, working hard to coordinate everything from parking to refreshments to score tabulations.
"There are going to be close to a thousand students playing their hearts out," he said. "I hope when they are stirring their pots of chili they get a chance to look up and see."
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
