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Assistant Drum Major Ashlyn Yi, Drum Major Christin Jeong and Assistant Drum Major Noah Gomez get ready to lead Warrior band onto field for National Anthem. (Photos courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone).
Anyone fortunate enough to see the Warrior Band and Guard perform at Troy High School football games this season could reasonably ask the question …
“Is this the best band in the land …?”
“We are very good at what we do,” says Troy Instrumental Music Director Joseph Castillo, “but there are tons of bands that are cleaner than we are.”
And why is that?
Time.
The Warrior Band and Guard will wrap up its season Saturday in the prestigious Arcadia Festival of Bands. Competition is in divisions, based on band size. Castillo’s unit (135 band members, 13 Guard) will compete in the top division, bands with 120 or more members.
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This will be the third year in a row the Warrior Band and Guard have participated in the invitation-only Arcadia event.
“This is one of the best competitions on the West Coast,” Castillo says, “and we have held our own. We have set a standard for our performance.”
The difference between Troy and the bands it competes against, is time.
“Other directors are impressed with what we do with the time we have,” Castillo said.
What they have is three hours a week of full-band practice.
“The schools we compete against practice three, four, five days a week, 9-12-15 hours,” Castillo said.
“Troy is an academic-focused school and our kids have lots of other demands on their time. We have one full-band practice a week, Tuesdays for three hours.”
As an academic campus, students come to Troy from all over Southern California, testing in for academic programs.
There is no testing for joining the band.
“We have very interesting tryouts,” Castillo said. “Kids who have never played before want to play and I say, ‘sure. No problem at all.’”
Castillo describes the Warrior Band and Guard as “a little more old school. We focus on playing and marching and less or chorography.”
He is also proud of the music used in competition.
“We have a very interesting book (of music),” Castillo said. “We do shows the kids like. Shows that challenge them intellectually.”
The Arcadia Festival of Bands does not mean Troy musicians will take the rest of the school year off.
Band members will transition into a spring semester that includes three concert bands, two orchestras, two jazz bands and a drum line, to list a few.
“We’re much more active in the spring than we are in the fall,” Castillo said.
—Courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone
