While Friday the 13th may have horror movie connotations, this past Friday was a day of homecoming fun. On the schedule was a football game, a parade, and for the STCE marching band, a visit to different locations around St. Charles to perform. The group stopped at Munhall Elementary School, Norton Creek Elementary School and the assisted living facility Silverado Memory Care Community to play a mix of catchy tunes for each audience.
Brett Dean, one of the band program directors at East, led most of the planning behind the visits. A large focus of the event was “bringing awareness to some of the fun things to look forward to when you get to St. Charles East and some of the fun parts about being in band itself, too,” according to Dean. “And it’s really cool for the elementary students to be able to see the camaraderie of students in the St. Charles East Band.”
Each 25-minute-long performance at Munhall and Norton Creek emphasized audience engagement. Students were called up from the crowd to direct the band in snapping their instruments into playing positions by yelling, “Band instruments up!’ Band members also ran through rows of outstretched hands to give out high fives.
“The way we ran the program had some clever ways of getting the elementary school students engaged, like having them do the horns up and feel like they were the conductor of the band,” Dean commented. “I think that made a big impression for some kids.”
Audience engagement took a step up at Norton Creek, the group’s second stop, where elementary students approached band members with questions. “Some of the elementary school students started to ask our students about the instruments, and our students kind of spontaneously went out into the crowd and were showing the students,” said Dean. “They just wanted to share and, you know, be open to talking to the elementary kids about it. It was super great to see that our students kind of did that on their own.”
Residents at Silverado Memory Care Community continued the trend of positive audience reception. Some had questions for the students, while others moved as if they were conducting the band. Regardless of how it was expressed, each audience had its own way of showing enthusiasm. Dean summarized this sentiment, stating, “Each crowd had their own way of reacting to it, but everybody was finding some way to enjoy the music.”
Dean is optimistic about coordinating similar events in the future. The follow-up emails he has sent to both principals have returned positive feedback. “I got back emails already that said ‘Don’t change anything, it was great. Let’s do it exactly the same way next year.’” The only conflicts included streamlining the process for bus drivers’ full parade day bus schedule and the logistics of transporting students’ leftover food and snacks. Aside from these logistical hiccups, the event was generally a positive experience for everyone involved.
In his closing remarks, Dean gave his thoughts on the experience as a whole. “Community audience was super pleased with how things went, so I don’t think we’ll need to change that too much. If we get feedback next year that something needs tweaking, we will, but our plan is to kind of just work with the template we have.”
Each audience expressed its engagement in different ways. However, that does not mean the positive impact of the band was felt any less. It is safe to say community band visits will return next year to once again spread the school spirit and one-of-a-kind atmosphere of the STCE band.
