The East Haven High School (EHHS) Co-op Marching Band took home the top regional award as the best band at the USBands New England States Championships on Oct. 29, making them the best band in Connecticut and New England.

The co-op band, with three members hailing from North Branford High School, triumphed over 13 competing school bands at the competition held at Rockville High School in Vernon with a score of 90.1. The award is given to all band members, including 30 instrumentalists and the color guard.

A historically award-winning band, the band was led to victory under the direction of Steve Wolf, a composer and show designer who took over the music program in 2021. Wolf took the helm after teaching and performing in independent marching bands and Drum Corps International (DCI) ensembles for 10 years.

“I’ve done a lot of marching band. Including all the bands that I was teaching, I probably have 30 or 40 seasons worth of experience at this point with various groups on top of the nine that I marched personally [with],” Wolf said. “This program here in East Haven, everybody is so willing to jump on and try things. I can come up with some of the wackiest ideas. [The students] are all about doing creative, new things.”

In crafting an accomplished award-winning show, Wolf recognized the excitement amongst the EHHS band members in practicing creative and non-traditional elements in a show, which includes the recent victory in the USBands championship. The competition was split into two separate divisions by band size, with EHHS falling into the first group for smaller bands from secondary education institutions in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Their show was a cohesive presentation that paired music and visuals designed by Wolf — the type of show that would include more complex musical arrangements by its director, rather than the playing of popular songs.

Under Wolf’s direction, the performance featured arrangements of selections from classical compositions written in the post-Romanticism era, including Modest Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” and “Danse Macabre,” by Camille Saint-Saëns, the latter of which took up the first third of the show.

According to Wolf, another key aspect of the show was the musically intricate approach around which the songs revolved, serving not only as a part of the show’s song choices and arrangements but as a learning experience for the instrumentalists and flag-twirling color guard dancers.

“For me, as a director, the music choice is the curriculum. The particular book you read in English class drives a lot of what the curriculum is for that portion of the class. The same is true for marching band,” Wolf said. “As an educator, I really wanted to dig into the idea of what’s called ‘complex meter;’ things that are based in groupings of three, rather than groupings of two. The majority of our show was based in three, which is a little unusual for marching bands, but that’s the skill I really wanted to build with them this fall.”

The cohesion of the musical half of the show and the visual was made possible by the show’s theme monikered by Wolf as “Spectres of the Dark Forest,” a fitting name for a performance with a dark, intense composition like “Danse Macabre,” and two days before Halloween. The color guard dressed as “evil, spooky, forest witches,” according to Wolf, while the band transformed instrumentally throughout the show. Wind players were gradually absorbed into the percussion section until the entire ensemble became drummers and percussionists. The ensemble was led by a three-piece trio on guitar, bass guitar, and drum kit playing behind all the steadily morphing winds and other drummers for an altogether symphonic-rock-type sound.

“‘The music chosen is all by way of choosing that story arch and character. That particular [selection of] ‘Danse Macabre’ and ‘Rite of Spring,’ it was all dark-sounding music that would fit that storyline and that we could contour into an experience for the audience,” Wolf said. “We don’t want them thinking, ‘Oh, it’s a high school marching band’ at any time during the show. Just like a writer or a filmmaker wants, we want people to be immersed in the story.”

Pulling the curtains back, a typical rehearsal session for the band will depend upon the time of the year. Towards the beginning of the academic year, intensive eight-hour band camp sessions were held in August, when instrumentalists and the color guard meticulously learned the music and choreography of the show, right down to the exact position of a single foot. Competition season began in September, with rehearsals being cut back to three to five hours per s

Reflecting on the appreciation of high school marching bands, Wolf sees that EHHS and the community overall as very supportive of the music program and its competitive band, compared to the widespread support for secondary education athletic programs at other schools.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a school district that supports its music program as much as this one does. I think this community is significantly more supportive than most,” Wolf said. “This town loves and supports the marching band. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to teach here.”

Ava Maroney, a senior at EHHS and six-year member Drum Major in the band, reflected on her time in a competitive and successful marching band, and the enjoyment of being part of the group.

“I've been in the band for the past six years, so I have essentially been able to grow within the marching band program,” Maroney said. “Putting so much time and energy into each season has meant so much to me, because I get to see my hard work pay off when I am proud of myself and what I'm able to accomplish.”

“What I have enjoyed the most about being in the EHHS Band is the friendships I have made and the skills I have learned like accountability and self-motivation.”

Alex Shadman, another senior Drum Major who attends North Branford High School, and has been a member of the EHHS band for five years, expressed similarly to Maroney on the sense of community being in the band has provided.

“I enjoy the camaraderie because this band is truly a family at heart. When I first joined as an eighth grader, I barely knew anyone and was nervous to meet so many new faces. Looking back, I recognize all the friends I have made and am grateful for all these bonds. These include members who are still in the band and those who have graduated already.”

“One of our band’s long-standing mottos is ‘relentless dedication to improvement.’ Through all of our practices, we strive for excellence and always find elements that can be improved upon.”