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Written Aug. 23
HINSDALE CENTRAL RED DEVIL MARCHING BAND
But the chance of fame isn’t why prep school kids work so hard at band camp. Rather, it’s about entertainment: The Red Devil Marching Band at Hinsdale Central High School has a repertoire of four—count ’em, four—shows this fall: (1) a Disney show featuring music from Pirates of the Caribbean, (2) a funk show featuring the song “Attitude Dance” by Tower of Power, (3) a 1980s show with “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police and “Jump” by Van Halen, and (4) a pop show featuring Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite.”
“We try to march new music and drill as often as possible,” director Matt Kurinsky said. “The experience is more like a Big Ten school than a drum corps. We have one or two graduates enter the corps each summer, but dozens go on to play something in college, so I feel like we are preparing them to keep playing after graduation.”
Speaking of college bands, you can have a sneak peek at what it might be like to be in one, as the U. of Iowa conducts an open rehearsal at Downers Grove North High School, just down the road from Hinsdale Central, next weekend.
In addition to home football games, drum majors Alex D'Amico, Henry He, Becky Ventura, and Justin Berg will lead the 218 marchers in a few parades, including the Fourth of July parade in their hometown, pictured at left.
“The school-spirited approach, as opposed to trophy-winning, fits our community well, so we don’t compete,” Mr Kurinsky said.
Lately, it seems college marching bands only get noticed when they’re standing where they shouldn’t be standing, playing when they shouldn’t be playing, or worse: the hazing death last year of a drum major at Florida A&M, the band that was used as a model for the movie Drumline, drew lots of attention from the media and even caused DeKalb County, Ga., to cancel all marching band activities at high schools in the county.
