Band director Mr. Nicholas Pignataro, assistant band director Mrs. Hayley Lombard, and drum major Cecily Heisey-Terrell provide insight into expanding the band and comparing the ensemble to previous years.
With the marching band season ending and additional bands starting again, students are reflecting on this year’s marching band.
Growing the band is an idea at the forefront of Heisey-Terrell’s reflection.
“The more people who can join us, the better,” Heisey-Terrell said. “A lot of people really enjoy the band, and it’s a great environment for a lot of incoming freshmen or new transfer students. It’s a great way to just build community within Strath Haven.”
The community is the highlight of the Panther Marching Band. Many people have found their place in the band and have built strong relationships.
“That’s what makes us special, right? That anyone can be in the band, and there’s no limit on who can be in the band or what you want to do in the band. So the bigger, the better,” Lombard said.
Comparing previous years’ marching band to this year, there has been a slow increase in numbers since the significant decrease seen through COVID.
“I joined teaching at Strath Haven, and the marching band right after COVID, and the band took a huge hit during that COVID time period because marching band looked so different,” Lombard said. “It was such a hard time for everyone to choose what to stay involved in, while also dealing with living through a pandemic.”
Many students were impacted deeply by the pandemic, which took a big toll on the marching band.
“I think that’s why we lost about 100 people,” Pignataro said. “We’re getting less and less students who are taking music classes when they’re younger and getting older.”
Pignataro also reflects on years before COVID, noticing a decline in the marching band participants since then as well.
“I think a lot of students didn’t come back to the band when I came in as the band director, because I made changes over the course of the past seven years. I enforce things like taking attendance and adding assignments, and I think there’s people that just weren’t interested in that, and that’s totally fair. I also think that this show is harder,” Pignataro said.
As they notice these changes in the marching band, student leaders are working on promoting more attendance.
“We really worked on making the band a fun place to join. We worked on smiling during performances and during band night. We really worked on getting involved with the crowd,” Heisey-Terrell said.
Lombard is reaching out to younger students as a teacher at Nether Providence. She also encourages current band members to remind the eighth graders that the marching band is an opportunity anyone can take.
“Just getting people to reach out, spreading about what a good year we had, how fun it was, and just what a great community our band is, and sharing that for the rest of the school year. Then, when the summer comes, we can get even more students,” Lombard said.
Pignataro values treating every student with respect and showing that their hard work makes the band successful.
“The number one thing we’re doing is to make it look good and sound good. People want to participate in something that looks good and sounds good,” Pignataro said. “I try to make the students who are in the band feel as good as possible, that way they are willing to ask their friends to join.”
DISCLAIMER: Reporter is in the marching band.
