The remarkable sights and sounds and colorful pageantry of the Huntington High School Blue Devil marching band will continue in 2020/21. It’s a tradition traced to the first band in 1934.
The Blue Devils have reorganized for the coming new year school year and announced a dynamic set of new leaders for the organization. The group includes many of the top musicians in the high school.
Carrie Kilgour, Miles Tierney and Jorge Cisneros will serve as the Blue Devils’ drum majors. Rebecca Hoffmann is set to be the field major. It’s a group of exceptionally talented teenagers.
“I am so excited to be drum major this coming band season,” Ms. Kilgour said. “This is going to be an amazing year. All of the band members and students leaders are phenomenal. I can’t wait for marching band to begin.”
Huntington High School music teacher James Cloyd Doty organized the first marching band in 1934. It was open to boys and girls in all four classes, according to the 1936 edition of The Huntingtonian, the high school yearbook. “Although newly organized, this group has worked very hard and with the cooperation of the student body, the band members have received blue and white uniforms,” states the yearbook. “They gave a new feeling of school spirit to all of the occasions at which they appeared this year.”
The band’s student leadership also includes flute section leaders Nick Danseglio and Jazlyn Chapas-Oliva; clarinet section leaders Catherine McCooey and Nadeera Ali; alto sax section leader Gemma Pellegrini; low brass section leader Tess Stanley; mello section leader Aileen Lopez; trumpet section leaders Bryan Wong and Joe Rombaldi and tenor sax/baritone sax leader Aaron Chin.
Bryan Wong will serve as the brass captain with Catherine McCooey as the woodwind captain. Jasjeet Kaur has been named the battery captain. Lauren Gooding and Evan Martinez will lead the pit section. Olivia Conte, Jazmynn Clark and Jackeline Ramirez-Tzoy will be the color guard captains.
“I am beyond thrilled and honored to be named one of the HBDMB’s drum majors for 2020,” Mr. Tierney said. “I can’t wait to work with everyone and have a phenomenal season. The members this year are some of the best we’ve ever had. The band is raging and ready to go for next year! We can’t wait to work hard and play our hearts out for our 2020 show.”
More than 85 years after its founding, the Blue Devil band is still a force to be reckoned with and the new set of student leaders plan to keep Huntington’s spectacular tradition going strong.
“It is such an honor being named this year’s field major,” Ms. Hoffmann said. “I am so excited to see how the band grows this year and I know together we will all accomplish so many amazing things. I know the show this year is going to be one that excites both the band members and the audience.”
Longtime Huntington High School music teacher Brian Stellato will once again be the marching band’s director. The staff is expected to feature many familiar faces, including several alumni of the band.
“The Huntington Blue Devil marching band is a family,” Mr. Stellato said. “We support each other and are there for each other through good times and challenging times. I am so proud of our kids. Congrats to the new student leadership for the 2020 marching band season.”
Band members cannot wait to get started learning the music for the 2020 show.
“Before the announcement, I was a little nervous but after I got the announcement that I was one of the drum majors for the 2020/21 season I was crying tears of happiness,” Mr. Cisneros said. “Being drum major was one of my top dreams and now that I’m one of them, I’ll bring all my energy to the band and to every single member, especially the new members for the 2020/21 season.”
If the student-leaders’ enthusiasm is an accurate measurement the band will most certainly challenge for the New York State Field Band Conference championship.
“I can’t wait to start the season and start working with the other drum majors and the staff and significantly the new members,” Mr. Cisneros said. “I’m 100 percent sure that this season will be the best, not because I’m drum major, but because of all the awesome members that we will have. I already feel the energy of this new season and I can’t wait to have our first rehearsal!”
