The Marching Band High-Steps Through Northgate Neighborhoods Saturday

If you awake a little groggy in a Northgate neighborhood Saturday morning and hear the big beat of a marching band, you're not dreaming.

That's the Northgate High marching band putting on a show in its annual fund-raiser. While the band makes its way around the streets, other students including Northgate cheerleaders in uniform go door to door and request donations for the band and other Northgate instrumental music programs.

The band is together in its school spirit these days, after some bonding at band camp in August, reports band parent Nancy Painter. 

The following is an email from Painter: 

Once the marching band students complete Band Camp during the last two weeks of summer vacation, they only practice on Wednesday afternoon. Their competitions and events are typically on weekends. The Marching Band is an club rather than a class, so all the kids are very engaged. The kids involved are really great, funny kids and they could tell you how much fun it is for them. 

That said, they are preparing for rather serious competitions (have you ever seen a Band Review?)  They will participate in several competitions later in the season where they are judged on not just their playing, but their formation and are inspected (military style) for uniforms and precision. Here is a link to our website.

The money raised from this event supports the entire instrumental music program. The Marching Band is directed by Ben Loomer but the program and all the other bands and orchestras are directed by Greg Brown. We have amazing talent within the program, including a very well regarded, award-winning Jazz Band that performs each Spring at Yoshi's and sells out two concerts. We also are fortune in that the Lesher Center allows us to perform our final performances each year in the main theater. The quality of the program is really quite astonishing.

I guess another part of the story is the commitment and participation of the parents and the community--these programs require not only tremendous commitment from the kids, but their parents and our entire community.