Baldwin marching band plays Pink Floyd for halftime show

To encourage participation in the Baldwin High School Marching Band, director Zack George pitched highlights to a group of students age 13 or so.

“I talked about the season and what we do, and I tried to hit all the main points of recruitment: Here are the trips that we go on. Here are all the fun things that we do during band camp,” George said about his spring visit to J.E. Harrison Middle School.

“But the single biggest reaction that I got was when I told them that the show was Pink Floyd. The entire room full of seventh graders erupted,” he recalled. “I didn’t expect that reaction.”

That would seem to be reasonable, considering the theme of this year’s halftime show, “Another Brick In the Wall,” is based on an LP released by the legendary rock band way back in 1979.

Eleven years later, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters added a new dimension to the album’s relevance by staging a concert performance of “The Wall” at the site of a recently demolished symbol of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall.

“We were looking for a show that, one, fits our ensemble’s needs, but also for a show that had a little bit more of a serious tone about it, because for the past couple of years, we’ve done a less serious show. It’s just good to mix it up,” George said.

The 2025 production comes by way of Seattle-based Jeff Chambers Music, which specializes in custom marching band arrangements. According to a description on the company’s website:

“This show brings to life parallels between history and current events. Refusing to be put into a societal mold and learning lessons from our past, the performers in this show demand that their individual and unique voices be heard as they become the world leaders of the future.”

Such a message resonates with senior Zaynah El Maghrabi, one of Baldwin’s drum majors this year.

“I enjoy the overall message of the show, breaking free from being pushed into norms and just breaking free from being put down overall. I think that’s a really good message to send to high school students in general,” she said. “It’s a good show that fits with all crowds, and I think that’s something we really needed. And I appreciate it.”

Along with the Pink Floyd songs “Another Brick In the Wall,” parts 1 and 2 – the latter is included in the single hit No. 1 on the charts – the show features original music by Chambers and Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Ballet Suite No. 4.”

“His story is kind of similar to the theme of this show, which I think is a really interesting parallel,” senior Jon Pickell, the other drum major, said about Shostakovich (1906-75).

According to the Wind Repertory Project, he experienced “a complex and difficult relationship with the Soviet government, suffering two official denunciations of his music, in 1936 and 1948, and the periodic banning of his work.”

And a focal point for “Another Brick In the Wall” is the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.

“I think it’s a very interesting theme, and there are a lot of cool quotes,” Pickell said, including some from U.S. presidents and applicable movies. “And it has one of the best endings of any show that I’ve been in.”

This marks his fifth year in the marching band, starting as an eighth grader the first year after covid-19 caused the cancellation of school activities. As a result of the disruption, student participation at that point dropped well below pre-pandemic levels.

For 2025, George reported the involvement of 73 students, up 11 from last year.

“Before covid, this band consistently had a hundred members every year,” he said. “So the primary goal is to work our way back up to triple digits.”

Now in her fourth year with the band, El Maghrabi enjoys seeing the growth.

“It’s really awe-inspiring to watch, because we were convinced that we couldn’t up our numbers for a long time. Now, we’re on the cusp of going up to Triple-A,” she said, referencing Baldwin’s classification for Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association events.

Along with halftime performances at Highlanders football games, the band is scheduled to participate in five PIMBA competitions this year, according to George.

He complimented his students for their three weeks of rehearsals for “Another Brick In the Wall” during a stretch of particularly hot weather, wrapping up Aug. 15.

“They’ve really taken well to it,” he said. “I’m pleased by the reaction that we’ve gotten and by the work ethic that they’re putting in. It’s been a good choice so far.”