Central band performs at regional competition, first time in 6 years

The Central marching band had been working all summer on their space-themed halftime show. The group persevered through long evening and morning practices in the blistering heat and shivering cold to get their music and marching just perfect. However, this year, the band didn’t just preform during the halftime of home varsity football games. The evening of October 14th, the band traveled to Burke High School to preform for other bands from around the Midwest at the Omaha Marching Invitational.

The Omaha Marching Invitational, or OMI, is a marching competition held at Burke every fall. Marching bands from Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota attended to be judged and ranked in competition before having a final performance in the evening. For many of the bands in attendance, OMI is their final performance before the concert season begins and the band members move inside for more traditional music-making.

This was the 32nd year that OMI was held at Burke, but it was the first time since 2011 that Central has attended. Peter Wilger, the Central band director of 27 years, shared why this year was the year Central got to show off the band’s hard work at OMI.

“We were having a push this year to get more bands involved,” Wilger said, “We were all performing [an] exhibition and we were doing that to encourage other bands to come because we were trying to push up attendance, which we were able to do this year.”

In past years, International Baccalaureate music requirements forced the Central band to get a head start on concert band so they could cram in an extra concert. This year however, none of the band students had to meet those requirements and the band was free to go to OMI.

While the Central band didn’t attend the morning portion of the Invitational where bands were judged and ranked for competition, it was still critiqued.

“I thought it went really well,” Wilger said, “We got some nice scores … Overall it was a really good performance, especially under the conditions.”

Of course, the band director isn’t the only leadership aspect in a marching band. One of the drum majors, senior Hannah Leff shared her thoughts on the marching season.

“I think this was the best year that the band has ever had of my four years here,” Leff said, “I think we did good [at OMI]. I feel like we could have done better considering the weather conditions, but that wasn’t really up to us, so considering what we had to deal with … we did pretty good.”

Those weather conditions refer to the cold and windy evening that plagued OMI. The Central band marched last, at about 9 p.m., when the weather was at its worst. Bass drums and sousaphones acted like sails, catching wind and blowing the wearers off course and the uniforms were not that insulating, despite getting very hot earlier in the season.

Central likes to pride itself on nearly everything, including the arts. While the problem of heavy IB requirements prevented the band from showing off their work in previous years, they took the opportunity given to them, worked hard and did wonderfully at OMI. No matter, how the band was ranked or judged, what matters is the work that went into the show.

“I think the band grew tremendously,” Wilger said, “The leadership really stepped up and took charge and the students really reacted positively to that. So, I think overall it was a great run from the beginning of the year to the end of the season and I look forward to that keeping going.”