Marching Knights Take on Newsome

RHS Marching Band and Starlets kick off the competition season at the Newsome Music Festival.

October 27, 2022

Marching Knights “Mad World” finale pose.

After lots of practice this year, the marching knights and color guard are back. On Saturday, Oct. 15, they competed in their first competition of the season and showed everybody a look into their ‘Mad World’.

“It seemed kind of fitting with how crazy everything has been, you know with COVID and everything else coming out of that,” Band Director Christopher Revett said. “Also, [with] being under construction it’s just feeling like a crazy place at Robinson, so we were like let’s make a Mad World show.”

The program featured ominous tones and deep brasses that evoked feelings of uneasiness within the audience. They also showcased multiple inkblot visuals alongside their music and intense choreography.

“With props, we’re able to add more to people’s show design. Obviously, our show is about going insane so we decided to use inkblots that are super famous for their psychological use and association,” said Siara Espejo, Starlet’s Head Coach and Choreographer. “The show is called ‘Mad World’ and we’re trying to convey a person trying to decide whether they’re crazy or the world is crazy.”

The Knights competed in the 3-A division, which is decided by the size of the band, to be in this category you have to have a band of 70-99 people. Starlets received the best color guard in the 3-A division and the marching band won 2nd place in the 3A division with 80.95 points. Overall, they finished in fourth place out of twelve bands. Although this was a huge win for the Starlets, the two groups go hand-in-hand. When one falls behind, they work together refining for the next time.

“I’m going to listen to the tape [of their performance] while watching the video, and we’re going to make edits and tweak things and just make sure the whole team is more prepared for the next show,” Espejo said. “Just enhance the performance overall for the band as well, because I do help with some visuals for them.”

This loss however does not deter their fighting spirit, if anything it only fuels them to make improvements.

“I feel like I could have done it better, I had some downs and committed some mistakes, but at the same time, I’m happy and proud of myself. Now I know what I can improve for next time,” Starlet Maria Lopez (’23) said.

The Knights will be performing their Music Performance Assessment (MPA) this Saturday at Gaither High School.

“I’m excited now that I know what to expect and improve on, I’m just really proud of us in general,” flutist Samara Saenz (’23) said.