The brass, The woodwind, the percussion, the color guard. 115 students — all performing together in perfect synchronization and choreography to bring us Howl. 

Band Director AJ Cook puts in the work to orchestrate the band, ensuring everyone is performing to the best of their ability. “This season’s show was so much fun to teach,” he said. “The students did an amazing job of improving every week and making the show come to life.”

Performing Howl, the 2022 marching show, the band reached KMEA state finals for the second straight year, a huge accomplishment in the state’s largest class.

“This season has been great season,” said Cook. “We had many shows where we were not the band that came out on top and that pushed us to be the best version of the GRC Band we could be this year. I am very proud that the students pushed through the adversity and earned their place in history by being a 5A Finalist for a second consecutive year.”

Each season, the band begins work on the show during band camp in July. Cook explained how this year’s show told a story of how the moon affects a wolf.

“The color guard is representative of the moon. We call them ‘moon goddesses,'” he said. “Throughout the show the band (wolves) turns from lurking, creeping creatures into angry, aggressive creatures. We do this through visual elements, but also through a major color change of dark colors to bright red.” 

Each “movement” of the performance progressed the theme in a new way.

“In the first and second movement the wolves are on the hunt, in the third movement we start to become enchanted by the moon goddesses, and by the fourth movement we get aggressive,” explained flute section leader Grace Kelley. “The music gets very loud and we have a costume change.”

Before state, the band competed five times this season, missing the finals in only two competitions.

“It is an award in itself to be able to compete,” said senior Erin Yates. “The best feeling is the end of our show, just knowing we tried our hardest and put our best foot forward.”

Competitions are set up in a preliminary/finals structure. If the band scores well enough with the judges in their first show, they get to perform for a second time in the finals. The band did this at the Class 5A semifinals on Oct. 29 held at GRC and moved on to perform in finals at EKU Saturday night.

“It is an honor to get to advance to the finals at any given show, but state finals are the goal,” said Cook. “My reaction Saturday was pure joy for my students. They pushed so hard the last two weeks of the season and I was happy to see that hard work pay off.”

In state semis at Cardinal Stadium, the band finished 3rd place in two music captions and earned a trip to state finals. “They had such amazing performances the last week of the season and no one walked off the field disappointed because they knew they did their best,” Cook said. “They earned it by putting in the work and trusting the process. That is what I am most proud of.”

To reach that point, many long hours were spent practicing and perfecting.

“Marching band is hard,” says junior John Gamble. “It is a lot of physical work, a lot of mental work, a lot of preparation just to get ready to even begin the show.”

Kelley agrees. “It is a lot of work,” she said, “but it all pays off when we perform.”

And it’s especially sweet when the season ends on a high note.

”The semi-finals have been hosted here for the past two years, and it’s calming to be at home for such a big performance.” says senior clarinet section leader Mady Marsillett. “We were waiting nervously on the results but once we heard it we all celebrated. The celebration was cut short though because we had to get to EKU to perform. The stadium was almost sold out, our show was great, and I can’t think of a better end to my senior season.”

Gallery • 5 Photos

Photo by Sean Roddy

The GRC Marching Band made state finals in 2022 with their show, Howl.