Snowday

Cedar Cliff 2009 Marching Band Show

The band got 2nd Place at USSBA Nationals against 15 other qualifying bands in their division.  Their final score was 96.85 -- not too shabby considering they had a lot of logistical problems during rehearsals and other competitions.  Two weeks before Nationals the show was still very rough, but they really pulled it together in the last week of practice.  Their drill was very complicated this year, and was designed by the Cadets' (Katy's favorite Drum and Bugle Corp) drill designer.  The band director, Ben Goldsborough, arranged the music.

At Nationals, the first place band's marching was absolutely fantastic.  At one point their brass line arced across the field going backward, and went perfectly through a prop archway!

The Cedar Cliff band also earned the High Score Caption Awards for Best Music and for General Effect.  I must say, the general effect was awesome.  The show started with the band members hidden behind huge snowflake props.  When they emerged, their white shakos and huge new white plumes made the field look like it was snowing.

Since the snow theme suggests high, piping notes, the band director asked Katy to play piccolo even though the band already had one.  Using two pics can be chancy, since they are difficult to keep in tune, but Katy rose to the challenge.  The piccolo trills really came through!  She loves playing piccolo, maybe even a little more than flute.  The other piccolo player is a Senior, so next year Katy will probably be the only one.  She's excited about that!

If you'd like to see it, these links will work for broadband or other fast connections, but probably won't work at all for dial-up connections (sorry):

Snowday recorded under controlled conditions at Cedar Cliff.  This version has a much better and more balanced music track.

MPG file -- 89 MB -- Large file, so downloads may be slow.  More portable format, higher quality

WMV file -- 24 MB -- Smaller file for faster downloading, but made for Windows*

Snowday High Camera ISO recorded at USSBA Nationals.  This version really shows off their marching forms, but the sound isn't too good.  The pit (stationary field percussion in front of the band) overbalances the rest of the band.

MPG file -- 90 MB -- Large file, so downloads may be slow.  More portable format, higher quality

WMV file -- 25 MB -- Smaller file for faster downloading, but made for Windows*

        * I haven't tried this, but it looks promising: 

               VLC media player for the MAC OS

(from the VLC website) VLC is a media player like Quicktime and Windows Media Player. Many view VLC as a good alternative to the these traditional media players because VLC is available for many different operating systems and is an open source software project.

Until recently, only experimental versions of VLC for Mac OS X could play WMV videos, but no longer. VLC for Mac OS X now supports WMV video. You can download VLC from the VLC media player for Mac OS X download page.