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As summer break draws to a close, the Pelham High School band is hitting all the right notes in preparation for a dynamic new school year supported by record enrollment and a captivating lineup of upcoming performances. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer

PELHAM – As summer break draws to a close, the Pelham High School band is hitting all the right notes in preparation for a dynamic new school year supported by record enrollment and a captivating lineup of upcoming performances.

“This year’s band is one of the biggest that we’ve had since we became Pelham City Schools,” Pelham High School Band Director Justin Ward said. “We are excited about seeing this continued growth within our high school and our middle school band programs.”

With approximately 160 members in the high school band and more than 230 in the middle school band, Pelham’s program is nearing a total of 400 students from grades six through 12, a significant achievement for the school that far exceeds the often-sought 10 percent involvement rate of all enrolled students.

Participating students in the high school band are currently taking part in this year’s camp, where they will work toward the development and mastery of this year’s marching band show titled “Colors of the Moon.”

According to Ward, this year’s show promises to provide a wide assortment of emotions and genres that will be supported and emboldened by its variety.

“We are focusing on the different colors of the moon that we see sometimes and what that represents from an emotional standpoint,” Ward said “(For our show) we have the red moon, blue moon and golden moon. The show utilizes everything from classical music, jazz and pop music. It is a wide variety of music for a wide variety of visual colors and the emotions and feelings that come with them.”

Songs for this year’s show will include the jazz tune “Moondance” by Van Morrison and “Talking to the moon” by Bruno Mars. Those contemporary tunes will be emboldened by well-known classical music pieces such as “Moonlight Sonata” by Ludwig Von Beethoven, “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy and “Symphony No. 10” by Dmitri Shostakovich.

“These are all classical music pieces that people may not recognize by their title but I would guarantee that the vast majority of our audience has heard these pieces,” Ward said. “They are commonly used in movies and mainstream advertising so even though they are older pieces they are still very well-known and tie in well with our show.”

While describing the excitement that the students and staff have displayed while being introduced to this year’s show, Ward also revealed that the PHS marching band will also incorporate a secondary theme for the year, which is entitled “Elevate.”

“For the past couple of years, we have done a character development theme that we utilize simultaneously during the marching season,” Ward said. “Last year was entitled ‘Do something great,’ and—inspired by one of our students this year—our theme this is entitled ‘Elevate.’ It ties in with our school and our school district’s mission for the entire year, which is to elevate different parts of student performance, engagement and what we do for each other on a daily basis.”

Ward also revealed that the Pelham band will also be taking on the added responsibility of a performing a pre-game show for every one of Pelham’s home football games this coming season.

“This is a secondary show we will be learning to hopefully get the crowd energized and participating in the Friday night football atmosphere from the very beginning,” Ward said. “We’ll be utilizing our jumbotron and some other elements in that to create greater crowd participation.”

This year, Pelham High School will have the added honor of hosting the Crimson Cavalcade of Bands presented by the University of Alabama.

“That event has previously been hosted in Tuscaloosa but this year the University of Alabama has decided to take it on the road and travel with the event,” Ward said. “We will be hosting the event here at PHS on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at around 6:30 p.m.”

That event is a non-competitive affair where local bands perform their shows for each other and a panel of staff from UA and other organizations. That panel will then provide feedback and comments to the performances in preparation for future competitions. The University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band will also perform at the event, which is a very rare occasion.

“It’s a pretty significant event in that—due to the Million Dollar Band’s travel and football schedule—they very rarely ever get to do exhibitions,” Ward said. “This will be the first time since 2004—20 years—that they will have done an exhibition in the Birmingham Metro Area.”

This event will further accompany the Pelham program’s other competition appearances which have been scheduled as the following:

• Aug. 6 – Friends & Family Performance at PHS
• Sept. 18 – Crimson Cavalcade of Bands at PHS
• Oct. 12 – BOA Southeast Championship at Birmingham’s Legion Field
• Oct. 19 – Marching Competition at a to be determined location
• Oct. 26 – Marching Competition at a to be determined location
• Nov. 2 – Alabama Marching Championship at Jacksonville State University

Preparations for this year’s season began back in May with a spring training camp that introduced incoming high schoolers to the additional elements of marching band. Despite the new requirements, Ward described the energy from the students this year as incredibly positive and energetic.

“There is a sense of excitement from all of our members,” Ward said. “They are so excited to see their friends. Our students truly are family members and have familial bonds so they are always excited to see each other and connect again. They are also excited to kick off the marching season and prepare for all of the performances coming up.”

In the midst of that excitement, Ward also described his adherence to safety and efficiency while planning the camps. At the forefront of his mind, is ensuring the camps take place in the face of summers that are trending hotter and accompanied by increasingly unpredictable weather.

“As boring as it sounds, I start reading climate projections from the National Weather Service months and months in advance,” Ward said. “This year, we have kind of seen a shifting weather pattern caused by the La Niña—where we are going to have a hot first part of the summer and typically you progress toward a cooler and wetter second half approaching fall. At this point we are pretty much prepared for whatever is going to come our way.”

Ward described that the band program at Pelham has taken multiple steps to work with the weather in a way that will cause as little interreference as possible. This includes the shifting of the timing of training blocks to begin at 7 a.m. and conclude at 11 a.m., whereas they used to run until noon.

“We used to go until noon, but now we realize that last hour is pretty rough,” Ward said. “We are more efficient and also able to keep the students safer if we are off the field by 11 a.m. For the afternoon, we are either indoors or we have a night block that starts much later once it is cooler outside and the sun has gone down. We’ve adjusted hours pretty significantly to accommodate the weather and have scheduled trainings for times where we have backup indoor spaces, in case it is raining or excessively hot.”

There is also a dedicated staff in attendance during the camp that are focused on heat safety, hydration and nutrition where students are involved. To ensure hydration is kept at the forefront of everyone’s focus, Pelham’s band program has also provided every student with a half-gallon water jug for their use.

As the camp continues and the program looks forward to a busy year filled to the brim with events and appearances, Ward specifically made it a point to thank everyone in the community who makes the program possible each year.

“We have a team of educators and staff members who all have very specific roles that help bring all of this together for our students,” Ward said. “From our parents, our school administration and our athletic department—to be able to support the students as they are going through camp and preparing for the season—they are truly all part of the team that makes up the Pelham Band. We appreciate all of them for their support.”

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