Two local high school bands are moving on in the ISSMA Semi-State Competition this weekend.
The Pride of Plymouth Marching Band has had a very successful season. Band Director Bryan Ames said, “This year’s show has been a ton of fun to produce and perfect. The show is called “the Eyes of REDemption” and is a twist on the story of Pandora’s Box. The concept of Pandora’s Box is all of the evils of the world being released, but what most people forget about the story is that at the bottom of the box was hope. The idea behind the story is that no matter how bad things get, there is always hope.”
The Pride of Plymouth will be one of 21 bands at the ISSMA Semi-State contest at Pike High School in Indianapolis. Normally, the top ten bands from both the North and the South portions of the state come together for this event. In the South, there was a tabulation error and 11 bands were advanced causing a 21 band semi-state event.
PHS Band students are working hard to attempt to make the state finals list and another appearance at the ISSMA championships. This year’s senior class was a state finalist in 2013 and is working hard to make their senior year the best.
Class B Semi-State begins at 1:00 p.m. and concludes at 6:25 with the awards ceremony and announcing of the state finalists. Plymouth performs at 2:44 p.m.
For the third time in five years (and before that, in 1977), the Emerald Alliance Bremen Marching Band have moved on from the Regional qualifier, and will be performing this weekend at the Semi-State Marching Band Class D competition at Franklin Community High School.
To move to the Semi-State competition, bands must be ranked in the top 10 bands at their local Regional competition.
The Emerald Alliance received a Gold rating, and received the highest score earned since the program was reborn in 2008.
Bremen Band Director Matthew Sutton said, “This is a monumental achievement, requiring hundreds of hours of work by the students as well as parent volunteers.”
Performance time for Semi-State is 5:59. The top 20 bands who made it through their respective Regionals will perform at the Semi-State Competition, and the top 10 will move on to the State Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium.
