After a brief summer break, the Westwood Warrior Marching Band returned to kick off the marching season at their annual marching band camp, which took place from July 24-Aug. 14. Sweating hard and practically baking in the heat, the band members have been hard at work to have an excellent season this year.
“When I started band camp, I thought it would be really boring [and] really difficult,” Austin Gu ‘27 said. “It was difficult, but it turns out, it was really fun because I got to spend a lot of time with my friends and meet new people.”
During band camp, students spent the mornings outside in the band lot learning the basics of drill and marching. In the afternoons, the band practiced show music.
“We don’t get drill for any show until August 1,” drum major Tina Kyriazis ‘24 said. “So before that, it’s all [about] learning how to march, how to hold your instrument, how to stand, and once we are legally allowed to learn drill, we learn where to go, [and] we learned [to] put music to play.”
This year’s show, Birds on a Wire, uses large cages and tarps shaped like feathers to tell a narrative about birds while using music selections like The Paperman by Christopher Beck, Feed the Birds (from the Marry Poppins soundtrack and performed by Voactve), and Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks by Modest Mussorgsky.
“I definitely think this is the best show we’ve had for sure,” Marching Band Director Brittany Dacy said. “It’s based on how birds on a wire look like music notes, and bird-like qualities in general.”
Everything the band learned throughout band camp was showcased at the annual Exhibition performance on Friday, Aug. 18. The band performed the first two parts of their show, along with their spirit show — which compared to previous years, is an incredible amount of progress at this point in the season.
“I have very high hopes for this year,” Joseph Clement ’24 said. “This is the best I’ve seen Westwood through my time here.”
