The Los Alamos High School Topper Band poses after their first performance at the Zia Marching Band Fiesta Saturday at UNM Stadium in Albuquerque. Courtesy/Ryan Finn
LAHS Marching Band awards from the the ‘Preliminary’ competition. Courtesy/Ryan Finn
By RYAN FINN & the Topper Marching Band Staff
LAHS Marching Band
What an amazing (and very long) day Saturday!
The Topper Marching Band performed in the “Preliminary” competition at 9 a.m. Saturday, as one of five 2A schools, at the Zia Marching Band Fiesta at UNM Stadium in Albuquerque.
We then listened and watched a lot of other awesome bands and waited for the awards ceremony.
When awards for class 2A were read, we heard the following:
- Outstanding Music Performance Class 2A, Los Alamos High School!
- Outstanding Visual Performance Class 2A, Los Alamos High School!
- Outstanding General Effect Class 2A, Los Alamos High School!
- First Place Class 2A, Los Alamos High School!
Obviously, a LOT of screaming and jumping up & down commenced.
We then heard our score (72.75) and listened as they listed the top ten bands overall (regardless of class). The top ten bands overall would perform a second time in the “Finals” competition starting at 7 p.m.
The 10th place band’s score was 77.5. This meant we did not make Finals, but since we won class 2A we would perform “In Exhibition” at the Finals competition.
Performing In Exhibition means we were not judged, but we would still perform as a part of the evening event – basically a victory lap for us.
The band totally and completely knocked it out of the park. Their Finals Exhibition performance was amazing – it’s awesome to see what the students can do when they don’t feel the pressure of judges – way cool.
Here is my take-away: THE 2022 TOPPER MARCHING BAND IS THE BOMB:
- If you weren’t able to make it to Zia, you can view some great videos on the Band’s Facebook Page.
- The Zia Judge’s Comments are posted to Google Classroom. I will be listening through all of this great feedback and using it to help plan our final three rehearsals.
- Look out for an email sent out Sunday with all the details you could ever want about the remaining week of our season.