The Westford Academy Marching Band placed second in Division III at a New England Scholastic Band Association (NESBA) competition hosted by Reading Memorial High School on Saturday Oct. 25. They also received the award for Best Visuals with their black-widow-themed show.
The next and last competitions in the marching band’s season are the finals, which will be on Saturday, Nov. 1 at Stoughton High School for the US Bands circuit, and Sunday, Nov. 2 at Lawrence High School for the NESBA circuit.
The awards the band won at Reading Memorial High School continue their season’s trend of success. The band placed first in their division in a competition at Burlington High School on Oct. 15, and placed second in their division in a competition at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst on Sept. 27.
“We were pretty close to the first place team,” senior and color guard section leader Sarah St. George said. “My first year, we only ever placed last or second to last, so getting first, second, or even third is a really big deal for us, and I, personally, am thrilled at whatever place we get.”
The band’s success can be attributed to multiple factors involving its 5 sections, their leaders, and the entire team of staff leaders.
“Our show is pretty cohesive this year,” band director Adam Shekleton said. “As far as artistic direction, we had a much clearer vision for what we wanted to achieve, and then what we had to figure out, from an educational standpoint, was how we get there, instead of trying to figure out what the show is on the fly and then hoping that it comes together […] It just felt a little more solid this year.”
One thing that has changed for the band over the last few years has been an increase in the organization’s overall size.
“Years ago, [the brass section] was a small but close knit group,” senior and brass section leader Henry Boltz said. “Now we’ve almost doubled in size, but [we’ve] been able to maintain that closeness and unity as a section.”
According to the band’s drum major and conductor, senior Charlie Small, he has noticed numerous changes in the band that have led them to this point.
The black-widow-themed show that was chosen for this year’s season is different from past shows in several aspects. The show is significantly more technically challenging and proceeds with much smaller breaks between movements. The performance is also shorter than previous years’ shows so that the staff and musicians can focus more on details such as intonation.
“Once we got a show that challenged us, we found that we needed to put more effort in to produce a better product, which would result in the better show,” Small said.
In addition to a more challenging show, the attitude of the band has also changed in recent years.
“I think the biggest [change] is the attitude that goes into each rehearsal,” Small said. “Our main thing before we started accomplishing what we’re accomplishing now was [making] sure we were having fun. We have a motto, and the first thing in the motto is to have fun […] But also something else we realized is that we didn’t spend as much time on other things [such as] striving for excellence, and putting effort into everything we try to accomplish.”
Being the last competition before finals, the musicians and staff have been using their performance at Reading Memorial High School to find the things that they want to work on before their final shows.
“At this point in this season, it’s about polishing,” Shekleton said. “We call that cleaning and repping. So picking the things that are going to make the show special and are going to make the show feel like it’s musically and emotionally impactful in this last week.”
As the band takes what they learned from this competition into the finals, they have also had the opportunity to reflect on the changes that have brought them to this standing.
“Even in just three years of change, it’s been remarkable,” senior tenor drum player Parker Robinson said. “[The marching band] is not even playing the same music, the music is way harder, and we’re achieving way more than we ever were before. Every year, consistently, we’ve just been getting better.”
