The Point Pleasant Borough High Panther Competition Marching Band took home first place at their first competition of the season at Raritan High School, on Saturday, September 7th. But what exactly goes into this bloody good show? Hear from Boro Band’s staff and student leadership about what it takes to put on “Beloved Immortals.”

Color Guard Captain April H., on the topic of setbacks the band has faced this season:

“I think one of our biggest setbacks was losing a lot of really skilled seniors in both the color guard and the band. We went down a whole division based on the number of people, so it’s definitely something we’re not used to, but I think we’ve made up for that with a lot of members stepping up and trying new things, and really putting their best foot forward to make up for the numbers we’ve lost.”

 Note: Boro Band won first place at the Atlantic Coast Championships in November 2023, with their previous show, “Barnum”

Band Director Mr. Scott Visco, about show design and song selection:

“Mr. K [Mr. Ryan Krywinski, Assistant Band Director] wanted to use the “Moonlight Sonata”, you know, the bring the whole moonlight thing into it…my brain immediately went to Beethoven. There was a movie out a while ago called The Immortal Beloved. It was a story about how Beethoven had this secret girlfriend that he would write letters to, and it wasn’t found out about until, I think, after his passing. It was all these really beautiful letters that he wrote to this lady, but apparently it was a relationship that shouldn’t have been, and there were stories and guesses about who that girl was. We were trying to morph those two ideas, of using Beethoven and vampires. We switched the words around from “Immortal Beloved” to “Beloved Immortals,” because vampires are immortals, and everybody seems to love them! Then we needed some sort of chase scene, so we found the string quartet for that. Of course Evanescence’s “My Immortal” is like in-your-face about our whole show, and they have a very vampire-esque theme about them. We picked “For Whom the Bell Tolls” because of the old church chime and the graveyard mood that we’re bringing into our show. Finally, Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” is pretty much the last movement of Requiem Mass, which is a mass for the dead, and that is why we chose that.”

Color Guard Coach Ms. Emily Strassheim, on costume selection:

“The first thing I do when picking out our color guard costumes (which always takes me months to find the perfect one) is create a vision board for the show with colors, materials, and other inspiration from the media. From there, I start looking for costumes that will help tell our story. I knew I wanted the costumes to be dark, elegant, and fierce, rather than your standard vampire Halloween costume, because we are telling a story, rather than a spoof on vampires, the most recreated figure in pop culture. That is how I landed on the gorgeous costumes we have now. I love the lace sleeves and the long, flowing skirts that we get to incorporate into our choreography. The color guard looks amazing in them!”

Junior Marching Drum Major, Chris J., about his goals for the season:

“Song one is very impactful, at least for me. It’s got two big impact moments, two big statements that you’re making. Not only is it the audience’s first impression of the show, but I don’t think it’s talked about enough how it was also the band’s first impression of the show. It was the first hint at what the show was really going to sound like. Since the band is smaller this year we weren’t sure what to expect, but I remember leaving that practice with a smile, because part of me expected it to sound a little bit more empty than it used to… but it didn’t, at all. I remember listening to it, and I was happily surprised with how full it sounded. That impact moment was so hard-hitting to me, right off the bat, even before we had worked on it at all. I think that was the thing that set the precedent for the rest of the season -that it was going to be a show that left an impact on the audience, just as it had on us that first practice.”

You can see this fantastic band perform and improve their show at any Panther Football game, or see them compete on Saturdays!

Next competition: Saturday, October 12, 2024, at Jackson Liberty High School.