Marching in style

When Brookings High School’s marching band hits the road for competitions this fall, it will haul the growing program’s instruments in a new $90,000 trailer.

But the trailer represents more than storage and transportation for the band’s gear.

It shows how much the marching band game has changed — and how much the BHS band has grown as well.

“When I was in band, the only visual effects were the color guard with flags and rifles,” said Jennifer Lacher-Starace, president of the BHS Band Boosters. “Now it has evolved into something that rivals theater — props, backgrounds, more choreography, costuming.”

As the band has grown, so has the size and complexity of its productions. The band’s old trailer was becoming a limitation.

“We were busting at the seams with the trailer we had,” Lacher-Starace said. “It limited the opportunities we had for our band to showcase that visual part of our show every year.”

The trailer was refurbished specifically for the band. It features new paint, new tires, interior and exterior lighting and two levels of storage. The project was funded through donations of money, materials and labor, with the school district contributing some funds to help complete the project.

The Band Boosters hope to add two sets of interior stairs at a cost of about $6,500.

The project began about two years ago with an anonymous $25,000 matching grant.

To meet the challenge, band students reached out to family and friends, explaining what the program meant to them and asking for support. The boosters also partnered with local businesses.

The result was a project that kept as much of the work as possible within the community. A company in Texas refurbishes trailers specifically for marching bands, but rather than have the company complete the entire project, the boosters looked for ways local businesses and community members could contribute.

“We could have paid a lot more money to have the company outfit the whole thing,” Lacher-Starace said. “But we figured, let’s see what we can do locally that might be more affordable and put that money back into the community.”

The investment comes as the band program anticipates continued growth.

Isaac McMahon, in his sixth year as band director, said about 120 students participate in marching band. The broader band program includes about 150 students in concert band, with color guard bringing total participation to 165 to 170 students.

And marching band today requires much more than learning music and marching in formation.

The band’s fall show is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” It includes choreography and voiceovers, giving it a darker tone that the students are excited about, according to McMahon. They have been practicing since early summer.

For the students, the hours of rehearsal and competition are about more than producing a polished show.

Senior Quinn Ulvestad, in her second year as a drum major, describes marching band as one of the most family-oriented activities in the school.

“Every single person plays such a necessary role in making the entire show,” Ulvestad said. “It’s the most team-oriented activity.”

She has watched that culture develop during her four years in the program.

“Within marching band, it’s so tight-knit,” she said. “We love being around each other, and that affects how we perform.”

Senior trumpet player Abram Bucholz has also experienced that sense of connection. A four-year band member and captain of the high brass section, he said some of his closest friendships originated in band, and he has enjoyed the hours spent rehearsing and competing with friends.

“To be excellent at something together really bonds people,” Bucholz said.

McMahon said he has tried to build on that sense of bonding and belonging.

“The kids have always said, band is family to them. It’s kind of inherent in band to have a sense of community,” he said. “On the basketball team, there’s only five playing at a time. But everyone in band starts.”

That distinction makes marching band different from many other activities, Lacher-Starace said.

“We joke that we’re the other fall sport,” she said. “Everybody makes the varsity squad, and everybody’s in the starting lineup. That camaraderie contributes to the most amazing sense of community that I’ve ever seen.”

McMahon has made a point of giving students opportunities to define that culture themselves.

During summer band camp, they give short “culture talks” to their peers about issues of importance to them. For McMahon, those conversations are part of building student leaders, not simply teaching students how to perform.

“We need every member to feel they’re a part of it and contributing meaningfully — because they truly are,” he said.

The band will have several opportunities this fall to put that philosophy — and their show — on display: the inaugural Harrisburg Marching Invitational; Brandon’s Big Sioux Review; the Festival of Bands in Sioux Falls; the Rosemount, Minn., Marching Band Festival; and Youth in Music in Minneapolis, Minn., where the band will perform at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Before those competitions begin, however, Brookings will have a chance to see the program up close.

The band’s preview performance is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the high school track. Food will be served from 6 to 7 p.m. as a fundraiser, and the performance itself is free. At 6 p.m., community members can watch the rehearsal before seeing the preview performance and the new trailer rolled out at 7:30.

Lacher-Starace said the preview gives younger students a chance to see if band might be an interest for them. It offers a glimpse behind the scenes at what goes into creating a marching-band production — and the people who make it possible.

“I have been a teacher for 30 years and I have never witnessed such a positive culture as that band community,” she said. She credits McMahon’s leadership and his commitment to developing student leaders and building community.

Aside from the band’s performances this fall, the trailer is one of the clearest physical representations of the program’s growth: it’s bigger, more ambitious and increasingly reliant on an entire community pulling in the same direction.

And now, the band has a little more room to take its growing show on the road.