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One, Two, Three: Exhibitions Review
While the Marching Virginians are most commonly recognized in the South End Zone of Lane Stadium, the band has had the chance to travel across Virginia this season.
In September, the 50th Anniversary edition of the MVs have traveled to three different exhibitions, showcasing what 330 dedicated student musicians have been working so hard on this fall.
All of us in the Marching Virginians were so grateful for the opportunity to show just exactly what a college-level marching band can be!
Christiansburg: September 14
The band’s Christiansburg exhibition on Sept. 14 was a rousing success. Band members arrived at the Marching Virginians Center for a brief rehearsal at 5 p.m. that evening, where we breathed, warmed up as a band, and reviewed our upcoming performance. After a period of loading the buses and getting dressed in our uniforms, the band was off. Our drive took a little over twenty minutes, seeing as Christiansburg High School is in Blacksburg’s backyard. Many dedicated Hokies tuned into Virginia Tech football on the ride, and marchers cheered while watching quarterback Kyron Drones rifle a pass to a wide-open Jaylin Lane for six.
We arrived at Christiansburg High School to a crowd of eager high school students and their family members. The band, in lines of five marchers, was called to attention and soon after marched into the Christiansburg football stadium. The excitement was truly palpable.
The band performed a series of tunes that fans loved. The exhibition first started with the cascade of “Superman” washing over the Christiansburg crowd after the classic run-on to the turf. A whistle from drum major Emily Tucker guided us to the second set of our first home show, where we stood and played a teaser of what’s to come with selections from “Dark Disney.” Shortly thereafter, the band marched and played Aranjuez, a fiery Spanish selection that was built for big band energy. The piece, reconstructed from Joaquín Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,” electrified the Lane Stadium a weekend prior in the win against Marshall. After a quick block reset, the band played a selection of tunes from Grammy-award winning metal band Metallica, including “Wherever I May Roam” and the recognizable “Enter Sandman.”
The super sousaphone section then rushed to the front of the field as the feature instruments in our performance of “Hokie Pokie.” The crowd ate up every dance move and even joined the band in song throughout the performance. Our last selection of the evening was a mix of tunes from our Pregame show, including “Shenandoah” and “VPI Victory March” with a concluding “Tech Triumph” off of the field. Before the band knew it, we were back at the MVC and focused on our performance against Rutgers the following weekend.
Riverbend and North Stafford: September 28
On the last Saturday of September, the band woke up after an extremely controversial VT-Miami football game to perform at Riverbend High School and North Stafford High School. The band’s performance at the two competitions elated the crowds at both high schools.
Riverbend
The first of two stops on our exhibition journey was at Riverbend High School. The Marching Virginians were invited to perform as a special guest in the Emerald Classic Invitational, and what a time the MVs had! After boarding the buses around 9 a.m., the MVs drove about four hours to get to Riverbend to at 2:30 p.m. We performed an identical set to our Christiansburg Exhibition, starting with our run-on and eventually concluding with Tech Triumph off the field. The first of two legs was a massive success, albeit a very hot one. Many MVs ran to get water once they got back to the air-conditioned buses and changed out of their sweat-covered gray MV shirts.
Excluding potential post-season games, the Riverbend and North Stafford exhibitions stand as the furthest the band will have to travel this season. Since the MVs were away from home, we had an extended dinner break with pizza before we performed at North Stafford. The intermission gave marchers a time to get some food and get some rest before we performed for a second time that day.
North Stafford
The second of two legs on Exhibition Saturday was exhilarating. After our pizza break, band members changed back into their uniforms and were then quickly escorted to concert arcs in a nearby field. There, Dr. Polly, the director of The Marching Virginians, and drum majors Tucker and Thomas Chase valiantly led the band through warm up tunes and snippets of our upcoming show.
What made the performance so special, however, was the recognition that “Aranjuez” would be played for a final time this season when we took the field at North Stafford. The Marching Virginians’ late staff arranger James Sochinski crafted the masterful Aranjuez for our marching band, and we would be playing it for a final time that evening. With that realization in mind, the band ripped through the piece with an intensity and fire that truly made it one of the season’s best performances thus far.
Fans and parents alike at North Stafford bought into what the MVs were doing. During the Hokie Pokie, many audience members broke into song and dance alongside the sousaphone section and roared during pieces from Metallica and Pregame. Overall, the excitement was through the roof.
The band closed their exhibition with a serene bus ride back to Blacksburg. While marchers got back to the MVC in the wee hours of the morning, it goes without saying that each member would gladly do it all over again.
