By Vivian Fang
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Embodying the spirit of passion, injustice and vindication, MHS Marching Band’s Joan of Arc themed performance took the Class AAA Sweepstakes award at the Kapolei Bandfest held on Oct. 26, placing first in five out of six categories and earning an overall festival rating of “excellent.”
“I think our performance quality was there. I felt that the band had energy, I felt them have the drive and their determination to give their crowd something they’ve never seen before,” expressed Senior Rachel Yonamine, who portrayed Joan.
This year’s performance drew out Joan’s zeal as a leader, the punishments she was later subjected to and her legacy as a saint. “This show’s very demanding so from the start of the season to now they’ve definitely grown and they’ve been able to do much more than what is expected of them,” said MHS Marching Band Director Derek Kaapana, “So I think it was a gradual improvement throughout the end and I hope to see more improvement throughout the last few weeks.” Saxophone section leader Senior Tyler Yamauchi added, “The start of the season was a little bit scary. It wasn’t horrible, but there was a lot of ups and downs for each section and for the band as a whole, we had a lot of potential, but not a lot of motivation. But we found that tonight. And I feel that’s why we came on top.”
There were many hurdles that had to be overcome, a key one being the band’s lack of motivation. “Each year, (the) band seems to take on a different personality. This year, this group of students seemed very unmotivated,” said Drum Major Junior Daniel Nakayama, “It (took) a lot of pushing. But from where we were before to where we are now, we’ve improved a lot.” Kaapana added, “I think the biggest thing is their drive and motivation. Their talent is there, but when they get that fire inside, where they want to do better and they want to go out there and show everybody what they can do, that really helped tonight.”
Throughout the process of mastering the show, a strong bond was formed between the performers. “Even though they’re individuals marching around, they’re, for the most part, forming one single picture so they all work together in unison to pull off an entire show,” said Kaapana. “Having a second family behind you all the time supporting you every single step of the way for those five months, and after that too, is the best part. It’s something you don’t find anywhere else,” added Yonamine.
Although they won first place, the band still feels that there is room to improve. “(Even though) we beat our competition (and) we’re first in our division, we only won by a small margin. That’s a little bit disconcerting because you know that your competition will come back even harder next week,” said Yamauchi. Yonamine added, “As an ensemble, I think our music could be better, definitely. I think our sets could be a little cleaner, and we could have more of an impact.”
Nearing the end of their season, the band hopes that the time they had would prep them for their final performance, ending their season with a bang. “I think that even though we don’t compete at our own event, which is Trojan Bandfest, for us that’s our big finale because that’s on our home field,” said Kaapana.
Because the Trojan Bandfest was hosted at MHS, the band’s performance was not included in the competition and was an exhibition instead. The Trojan Bandfest was held on Nov. 9 at the John Kauinana Stadium.
