Band Camp Sets Stage for
Competitive Season
A late summer camp for the Huntington High School Blue Devil marching band has set the stage for what the musicians and their advisors expect to be a sensational fall competitive season.
Held at J. Taylor Finley Middle School, this year’s camp was filled with enthusiastic and talented band members.
“This was out finest band camp in my 15 years with the program,” said Jason Giachetti, who serves as co-director of the band along with department colleague Brian Stellato. “Our members were focused, and determined. They worked extremely hard during the training camp and band camp. For the first time in many years, the band finished learning the show by the end of band camp. In fact, this year, they learned the whole show in only five days, giving us the weekend to prepare for our parent show, which was a complete success. The band performed the entire show as well as demonstrations of each section.”
The Band Parents Association of Huntington donated a new sound system for the Blue Devil band’s front ensemble. “This has given the band a sound that we’ve never had before and we are all very excited about incorporating it into this season’s competitive show,” Mr. Giachetti said.
This year’s competitive show is “Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky. It is approximately 7 ½ minutes long. There is almost 80 sets of drill and nearly 900 counts of music and work.
“The 2014 Huntington Blue Devil marching band is off to an amazing start,” Mr. Stellato said. “This is quite the band! The new members have done a fantastic job so far. We also have a real strong group of student leaders, who have helped these first year members along each step of the way.”
On the Saturday of band camp week, the marching staff was challenged to take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
“We accepted and took the challenge,” Mr. Giachetti said. “We then challenged the band to take the challenge at the show the next day.”
The band also accepted the challenge and in turn challenged Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky, Director of Fine and Performing Arts Sarah Gill and the Huntington School Board, as well as the Walt Whitman High School marching band. “Mr. Polansky, Mrs. Gill, and the attending members of the board of education accepted the challenge and then challenged Coach Steve Muller and the members of the Huntington football program,” Mr. Giachetti said. Log onto http://huntingtonband.net/Huntington_Band/HBDMB.html to view highlights of the challenge.
“This was a very special band camp for me for many reasons,” Mr. Giachetti said. “Seeing the band work as hard as they did and take on such a challenging program head-on is only the beginning of what we are hoping to be our best season yet.”
The Blue Devils appear well positioned to have a fabulous fall competitive season, which will culminate at the state championships in Syracuse in late October. Band members and advisors have put an awful lot of effort into this year’s show. The band will perform the show at halftime of the Homecoming Day football game on Saturday, September 20.
“Prior to training camp and band camp, we sent 17 band members up to Drum Major Academy at the University of Massachusetts for leadership training,” Mr. Stellato said. “This marks the most students we’ve ever sent to this, which speaks of the dedication and motivation of the 2014 group.”