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Band ends marching season with number of awards

Lead Summary
By
Lori Sorenson

The Luverne High School marching band members are finished with fall competition, and director Richard Owen is reflecting on what he considers a successful season.
“As a director it seemed to me that this season went really fast,” said Owen, who was in charge of 54 band students.
There are 19 woodwinds, 17 brass, nine battery percussion and nine pit percussion.
That’s not counting the 19 color guard members — the largest number in many years — who trained under Gavin Folkestad.
Part of the formula for marching band success stems from long and frequent practice sessions.
Band camp started July 27 and went for three weeks leading up to the start of school. Percussion students met for periodic rehearsals in May and June in addition to summer band practice.
Owen scheduled several “home” appearances for the marching band to perform for a home crowd.
“We played at five home football games and the pep fest at school,” he said.
 
Competition results
For competition Luverne students went to Marshall on Sept. 19 and placed fifth.
At Tri-State Band Festival on Sept. 26 LHS performed the National Anthem and also the parade and field. As the host band, Luverne’s performance was an exhibition.  
That evening of Sept. 26, LHS competed in Brandon, South Dakota, where the band took second place and received the outstanding color guard award.
At the Sioux Falls Festival of Bands on Oct. 3, Luverne competed in the parade and field competition and received a superior rating.
At the “Pursuit of Excellence” field competition in Orange City, Iowa, on Oct. 10, Luverne placed fifth and won the outstanding color guard award for the second time this year.  
The marching band season wrapped up with an indoor marching band concert and awards on Oct. 12 in the Luverne High School gym.
 
About the 2015 show
Luverne’s show theme this year was Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
“Because the band went on a trip to California last summer and performed at Disneyland we chose that as our music,” Owen said.
The LHS show included a trumpet solo, which was played by Hans Bakken and Mitchell Muller.  
“We also had a skit with a jail cell prop and Jack Sparrow being put in jail by an English guard,” Owen said.
“If people were paying close attention they would notice that the jailer’s uniform was the Luverne marching band uniform from years ago.”
The jailer was played by eighth-grade percussionist Jordan Winter, Luverne.
“We also received a lot of comments from judges talking about the percussion that was used for the prisoners in the jail — that that is where they should be,” Owen said.
“We got a lot of other feedback from judges that we were able to incorporate into the show as the season went on. The students did a great job at adjusting as we went along. … We did make a lot of improvement and I look forward to seeing the band rise to the challenges that will come in the future.”

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