CEDAR RAPIDS — Skies were mostly sunny with warm temperatures and a slight breeze Saturday, October 12. But at Kingston Stadium, for a few minutes, the best and worst of Mother Nature were on display instrumentally as the Solon High School Marching Band competed in the Iowa High School Music Association’s State Marching Band Festival.
Four sites hosted competition with four more slated for Saturday, October 19. The Spartans were among 25 bands hosted by Cedar Rapids Kennedy HS and joined fellow WaMaC schools Center Point-Urbana, Marion, South Tama, Clear Creek Amana, Benton Community, Vinton-Shellsburg, and Mount Vernon in Class 3A competition.
Brady Evers, a senior, volunteered to select the band’s competition program this year.
“I was looking into purchasing (the rights to perform) a marching show because it’s my senior year and I wanted to make it special. Luckily we had a nice donation that was able to provide the funds for it.” Evers’ work started way before marching season. “It started this past winter. I started planning really early. I looked on websites for shows that we could do, and this one really struck my attention because it provided some difficulty, but was also something that we could do.”
The show is called Elemental and was composed by John Fannin, Matt Hightower, and Jacob Thiede with percussion by Josh Powell for Fannin Musical Productions. Four individual pieces make up the production, “Dark Skies,” “Cyclonic Destruction,” “Falling Snow, Rains, and Ice Storm,” and “Parting Clouds.”
“It’s more about nature and how nature surrounds us,” said Evers. “I’m super-passionate about marching band, marching is my favorite season and I just wanted to go that extra step and do it one last time. It’s been enjoyable.”
Marching season winding down quickly
The annual Highway 1 Festival was held Tuesday in Mount Vernon with Solon, Mount Vernon, Lisbon, and Anamosa performing. The festival isn’t a competition however, but a time of fellowship.
“It’s just music for music’s sake,” said Band Director Desmond Cervantez. The festival grew out of the COVID19 pandemic when Cervantez started a show called the “Bandemic,” where he invited some small schools in to perform, again not for judged competition, but for fun. “And it grew into the current Highway 1,” he said.
Friday (October 18) the band will be joined by Solon Middle School band students for the annual Halloween Show during halftime of the varsity football game on Senior Night.