Norwin High School Band goes through final tune-up before national competition
Like athletic teams preparing to play for a championship, the Norwin High School Band went through a dress rehearsal Wednesday night of the show it will perform at a national band competition in Indianapolis over the next three days.
Playing before several hundred people under the lights at the high school stadium, the 140 members of the band and color guard performed “Harvest,” the show it will present at the Bands of America Grand National Championships that opens Thursday and continues through Saturday. The band leaves Thursday afternoon for Indianapolis.
They will be performing under the dome at Lucas Oil Stadium, home to pro football’s Indianapolis Colts.
The Grand National Championships are “the biggest stage for high school marching bands,” and will attract about 100 bands, according to Tim Daniels, Norwin’s band director. Norwin’s last trip to the national championships was in 2011, Daniels said.
The students have been practicing for the Indianapolis show since summer band camp. That practice continued Wednesday night as Daniels offered instruction to his band members as they rehearsed their four numbers: “Fields of Gold” by Sting; “Strange Harmony,” “Lux Aurumque” and a mashup of “Fields of Gold” and “Spring” by van de Velde.
The performance at the community sendoff pleased Brandon Kandrack, assistant band director.
“We are peaking at the right time,” Kandrack said. “Things are coming together. The kids feel real great right now.”
A panel of judges will be using three criteria: the quality of their music, the visuals and the general effect of how well the music and choreogrpahy come together, Daniels said.
There will be preliminary rounds, semifinals and the finals. According to Music for All, which sponsors the national competition, there will be 45 bands performing in each of the two separate preliminary contests, balanced with a similar number of bands from each class.
If Norwin advances, there are 30 bands that go to the semifinals with a formula that ensures inclusion of representatives of each of the four classes and the top scoring bands from the two separate preliminary contests.
The Norwin band has been a statewide winner in the recent past, taking the top spot in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Marching Band Association Class AAAA competitions in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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