Bands Try to Blow Away Competition

A look of stern concentration crossed the face of Rio Mesa High School junior Lisa Tillquist as she gingerly worked her fingers across her flute.

Tillquist, 15, was preparing for the kill.

This was do-or-die time--the last marching band competition of the season. But like any pro, now with five years of music lessons under her belt, she was cool and collected.

“We’ve done this before,” Lisa said. “So I’m not worried. I’ll just go out there and do my best.”

Rio Mesa’s marching band and color guard from Oxnard competed against groups from 21 other schools Saturday at Moorpark High School’s fourth annual Battle of the Bands.

The other schools included Antelope Valley High School, Granada Hills High School, John Marshall High School from Los Angeles, Lancaster High School, Atascadero High School and Carpinteria High School.

The event, held at the campus on Tierra Rejada Road, is a fund-raiser for Moorpark’s band department, with school officials hoping to raise as much as $15,000. The money will go to buy new instruments, said Mike Gangemi, Moorpark’s assistant band director. “You’d be surprised how little $15,000 will go,” Gangemi said. “It might buy about four tubas.”

But as hosts of one of the last band competitions of the season, which begins in October and usually ends by Thanksgiving weekend, Gangemi knew most of the kids were not thinking about raising money for new equipment. They were thinking about showing off the hours of practice they have put in for their performances.

*

They were thinking about bringing home trophies.

“My Mondays and Thursdays have been pretty shot,” said Luke Faith, a Fillmore High School senior who said his band practices about three hours after school twice a week. “You just can’t do anything with your friends after school. But a lot of my friends are in the band, so it’s all right.”

Luke, who for the last three years has served as the band’s drum major, figured his team had a pretty good chance of out-blasting and out-stepping the competition. “We’ve been up against three bands here already and we came out on top of them,” he said. “So I think we have a pretty good chance.”

It would be the second performance of the day for the band. The 65-member team was up early Saturday to play in the parade marking the grand opening of Ventura’s Pacific View Mall before traveling to Moorpark for the competition.

“I’m a little tired,” said Greg Godfrey, Fillmore High School’s band director. “But they’re OK. I’m imagining by the time we get to the award ceremony, about 9 p.m., they’ll be nice and tired.”

Band parent Beth Mijahara, who has two children in Fillmore’s band--one on saxophone and one on flute--said she knows her children work hard to master their instruments.

“I’m sure they do get tired,” Mijahara said. “We’re up early most weekends. Sometimes if we don’t have anything, I say, ‘Hey, we get to sleep in this weekend!’ But it’s worth it.”

*

Moorpark school officials worried Saturday’s rainy skies would force competitors off the football field and inside the school’s auditorium, which--because of cramped quarters--would have squashed the marching part of the competition.

“They would just stand still and play,” band Director Robert Hackett said. “But we didn’t have to do that, thankfully.”

Gangemi added that competitions like Saturday’s are important to band members because they give them a chance to be the center of attention--unlike when they perform at a high school football game.

“People are not there to see the band,” Gangemi said. “And we know that. When we’re playing, people are goofing around, talking among themselves. But here, when they play, everyone is quiet, listening for every nuance.”

Moorpark High School’s band performed at Saturday’s event, but, as host, it did not compete.

The competition was expected to run until 9 p.m. Saturday, with award winners announced before midnight.