Three years ago, the Niles High School Viking Marching Band had around 60 members. This year, the band will have more than 100.

Director of Bands Joshua C. Doe expects that number to continue to grow.

“In 10 years, I hope we are marching 150 plus at the high school level,” he said.

Doe attributes the success of the program to a student-centered philosophy.

“The students are the most important part of the band program,” he said. “They have to want to succeed and do well.”

And, according to Doe, they do.

“We’ve had a good couple of years working with these kids,” he said.

This year, the Niles marching band will be performing an original show, “Latin Fire.” The music varies from a samba to a pop mariachi tune.

“We’re attempting to encompass music from Latin America, the Caribbean, South America and more,” Doe said. “Latin was something that I didn’t see any other bands do last year at MSBOA Marching Festival, and frankly, it’s kind of my favorite kind of music.”

Niles band students began to learn how to play and march the songs for their show at a band camp held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 3-7, at Niles High School.

“Band camp was extremely successful,” Doe said. “We have a young band, and that puts a lot of pressure on the young freshman class to push hard … The kids worked through it, and they did a great job.”

The Niles band will also be incorporating some outside-the-box marching elements throughout their show.

“The opener is a drum-corps style tune with a lot of visuals,” Doe said. “And you’ll definitely see something you haven’t seen before in the third song, which has a dance feature.”

Doe said that the band will also feature several soloists throughout each of the four songs.

Working against the Niles band this year will be the football schedule, which has two home games before the school year even begins. Once those games are over, there will be weeks-long breaks between games — which means weeks-long breaks between performances, for the band.

“It’ll be easy to lose focus and intensity during rehearsals,” Doe said. “I’m going to counteract that by pushing, having fun, then pushing harder.

“We’re going to pretend that we have a performance every Friday.”

All of this preparation is for the Michigan State Band and Orchestra Association District VI Marching Band Festival, held Oct. 7, at Niles High School Viking Stadium. At this event, marching bands from around the area will perform their shows for an audience and a panel of three judges. Each judge will create both an audio and written recording of comments throughout the performance, then give a rating of Division I through Division V, one being the best.

Last year, Niles received a Division II rating at the marching festival. This year, Doe is confident the band will do even better.

“I want to maintain a program that receives a majority of Division I ratings from MSBOA,” he said. “These kids will do a great job.”

 

Niles Marching Band Fall Performance Schedule

8/7: End of band camp performance

8/28: Home football game

9/3: Home football game

9/18: Home football game

10/2 Home football game

10/3: Apple Festival Parade

10/7: MSBOA Marching Festival

10/17: Lakeshore Marching Invitational