On Monday, the 16th of September, 180 students marched onto the field at the Toney Burger Center in downtown Austin. It was the first time that the Trojan Band would perform The Maze, their 2024 competition show.
It is composed of two movements and more than 50 locations on the field each student must memorize, called sets. Sets – the visual aspect of a performance – are considered to be the most important part of the show for judges and require absolute perfection if a band wants to get top marks. The performance at the AISD Band Jamboree represented the culmination of months of work done by the students. They would memorize an additional 20 sets before their first competition.
The second of two shows the Trojan Band will perform this year, The Maze has three movements and a pre-show. The former, The Greatest Show, was performed during the first two halftime performances.
In general, band members seem to prefer The Maze over The Greatest Show. When asked at the Taco Shack Bowl which show he enjoyed more, trumpet player Adrian Komacha responded, “definitely The Maze.” The reasoning of many students – especially upperclassmen used to marching band – is the higher complexity of The Maze, both in terms of music and marching relative to The Greatest Show.
The feeling isn’t universal, though. Lex Tamblin, a sousaphone player, responded that he preferred The Greatest Show, as much of the choreography of The Maze was difficult to do with his cumbersome instrument.
Regardless, every band member has their sights set on one goal: the UIL State Championship in San Antonio. The path there has historically been near-impossible for Anderson; many elite marching bands all share the same area zone as Anderson, and with them all vying for the few available spots in the state championship, Anderson has often been left to the wayside. Only once in the nearly a decade and a half head director Frank Nedley has been at Anderson has the school made it.
However, with a dip in the student population last year, Anderson dropped just below the 2,220 students enrolled required to be in the top 6A division. With weaker opponents to face in 5A, the Trojan Band hopes they’ll be able to sneak through to UIL States.
The Anderson Band is scheduled to attend five contests this year, over the course of about a month. The first of these contests, the Capital City Marching Band Classic (Cap City), served as a rallying point for the Trojan Band. They placed 2nd in the semifinal round and 3rd in finals, despite having only learned their third movement over the course of the week of the competition. For context, they’d been practicing the former two movements for 8 weeks when Cap City happened. The band’s directors hope that doing so well early on into learning the 3rd movement of The Maze will translate into even more superb scores later in the season.
The season looks bright for the Trojan Band. With a talented class of freshmen, ambitious show design, and intense dedication, the band has no doubt in their mind that their goals can be reached.
More information on when and where to find the Trojan Band’s performances can be found here.