By Hayley Strahs
With competitions almost every weekend, winter guard and winter percussion’s respective seasons are in full swing.
On Jan. 25, winter guard attended the California Color Guard Circuit (CCGC) Color Guard Evaluation Show, or evals for short. During evals, judges divide guards from across Northern California into four main divisions. This year, LGHS is competing in the Scholastic Regional division.
New this year, the Bay Area Performing Arts Movement (BAPAM) hosted its first Friends and Family show in the LGHS Large Gym. In addition to the LGHS winter ensembles, viewers saw performances from Branham High School Winter Percussion, Sparta Indoor Percussion, and Sparta Winds. Sparta is an independent indoor music program associated with San Jose State University (SJSU) that serves both SJSU students and students whose schools do not offer winter ensembles. LGHS Assistant Band Director and SJSU alum Jackson Baker explained that the event “built community” and “showed students what [winter programs] are like at the next level and brought them closer with other groups that have similar aspirations.” Baker hopes to turn this spectacle into an annual tradition for LGHS and surrounding schools and groups.
With numerous performances to prepare for, winter guard and winter percussion remain hard at work to improve and finish their respective productions. Both groups are roughly three-quarters into their shows – around the same as other high schools in the area. Amidst new choreography and music, members continue to grow individually, with sophomore Stefania Estala learning how to play the bass drum just this year. Despite being new to the activity, Estala happily described her favorite part of winter percussion as “learning a new instrument and being with new people.” On the winter guard side of things, sophomore Jeremias Stauch shared his recent accomplishment of “tossing sixes without a plié,” a technique that requires extensive practice and back strength.
On Feb. 8 and Feb. 15, both LGHS Winter Ensembles attended CCGC Independence and CCGC James Logan, respectively, at the corresponding high schools in San Jose and Union City. With seven seasons under her belt, winter guard senior Lucy Sinclair asserted that “[competitions are] always kind of stressful right before you go on. But then, once you get into the show, it’s really fun. I enjoy it a lot, and it’s part of why I keep coming back to color guard.”
On Mar. 1, Winter Percussion will attend the Northern California Percussion Alliance at American Canyon High School, and on Mar. 8, Winter Guard will attend the Winter Guard International Union City Regional at James Logan High School.