As school marches into full gear, so does the Fair Grove High School Band as they prepare for upcoming performances and competitions for the 2024 marching band season.
On September 6th the Fair Grove High School Band had their first performance of the year after a great season last year. Mrs. Natalie Palomo, the Fair Grove Schools Band Director, said, “Last year we had a great season. We placed everywhere we went, including winning our class in our last competition of the year, as well as taking home multiple caption awards.” She also mentioned that the season was successful though the band’s attitude and leadership as well.
Even though they had a great season last year, band members have improvements they want to make for themselves and for the team moving forward into the new session, one of them being Andrew Mcguire (9). Newcomers to High School Band have to make the switch between how they perform in Middle School Band compared to High School Band with Mcquire being one of the newcomers, with him wanting to improve the playing and smoothing out of songs which would make them sound better for the audience.
As the band students make their own individual improvements, Mrs. Palomo wants to take a different approach when it comes to the whole band. Mrs. Palomo wants to emphasize the “continuation not comparison “ approach for this band session she added, “Rather than focus on what we used to do and how things used to be, we’re focused on continuing the standards of excellence we established for ourselves, hoping to perform at a high level and potentially see those results in our competition scores!
With the start of this new season many band kids have new goals they want to achieve, from seniors to freshman, they all have goals they want to complete before the end of this session. Lucas Engel (12) has the goal of wanting to compete in finals in two competitions before he graduates while Mcguire has a long term goal of wanting to get into college with a band scholarship.
Another goal is from Aydan McClinton (10). McClinton is a new section leader this season meaning she helps lead section rehearsals, communicate judges comments, and help Mrs. Palomo in any way possible. Being a underclassman, McClinton goal is to show people that just because she’s an underclassman doesn’t mean she can’t show leadership, she said, “I wanted to become a leader in band because I wanted to be involved in something I’m passionate about and be able to provide something to the band. It means a lot to me to be able to help newer kids and show them that leadership is attainable even as an underclassman.”
With the start of the school year, the Fair Grove High School Band has already started practice for upcoming competitions and football games. McClinton added, “Our show is already coming along really nicely, I think we’re super motivated. McClinton also said “I think this band session is going to be really good!”
The next event where people can see the Fair Grove High School Band will be Saturday, October 5th, where the band will have a competition at Ozarko located at Missouri State University. The next football performance for the band will be Friday, October 11th at Fair Grove High School where anyone is welcome to watch their halftime performance and performances during the game.
