Redondo Union High School’s band marches to a winning beat
March 5, 2015
Ellen Robinson
Senior Redondo Union drum majors Benjamin Gosney and Cole Greenbaun are both hoping to pass on their legacies to younger siblings at the ever evolving band program at their high school.
Gosney, who plans to minor in music at the University of Colorado in the fall, anticipates his freshman brother can reach even greater success under the continued direction of the school’s new band director Raymundo Vizcarra, who students affectionately call Mr. V. Greenbaun has high hopes that his 11-year-old sister will follow in his tracks and become a music major in the future.
Since taking the reins as director a year ago, Vizcarra has transformed the school’s band into an award winning program. He stepped into the role last February in the middle of concert band season and had immediate success at competitions.
Last spring the concert band and the wind ensemble both earned excellent ratings at the La Canada Festival and at the Torrance Festival. At the Montebello Festival the concert band achieved a unanimous superior rating and the wind ensemble earned another superior rating. The last time the RUHS band took a superior rating was in 2004.
At the Drums Across California competition, the indoor drum line took first place and rose to be named the Division 2 champion. And at the Heritage Festival in San Francisco last spring the concert band took first place and received a silver rating, the wind ensemble also took first and received a gold rating, and the dance guard also took first and a gold rating.
Vizcarra said his recipe for success consists of pushing his students to be goal-oriented and to keep their focus on self-improvement.
“I always tell them to set the standard and exceed it, set goals and achieve them and if you win a first place in the mean time that is even better. The focus isn’t on winning, which I believe is what has worked to make them very successful,” he said. “The band won a total of five sweepstakes last fall, just one after the other. We won first in all competitions except for one. This year’s seniors hadn’t won a first place, so it was great for them to experience this success.”
The concert and wind ensemble bands have been fine-tuning their routines in the weeks leading up to the spring competition season. Gosney and Greenbaun are looking to end their high school band careers on a high note.
With success under their belts from last spring after being named drum majors, Gosney and Greenbaun were eager to take to the field and concert halls in the fall.
“A lot of the band members were skeptical of the direction Mr. V was taking when he stepped in, but everyone stuck with it and we loved what happened by the end of the year,” Gosney said.
Greenbaun said the band program had seen a lot of ups and downs over the past few years. When they were freshman, the previous band director left and an interim stepped in taking them into their sophomore and junior years. After being under Vizcarra’s direction since last spring, they knew they were going to shine in the fall competitions.
They started by taking first place at the West Field Tournament in Torrance in both band and dance guard and then took first in drum line and dance guard and took “sweepstakes” in the high visual effect category and performance categories. Taking sweepstakes was a real feather in the caps of the band and dance guard members and they went on to do it again at the Centennial Field Tournament and again at the San Gorgonio Field Tournament in San Bernardino.
Vizcarra also created three new programs including a winter indoor drum line, indoor dance guard and a freshman symphonic band.
“Having them participate in a winter program will keep them in practice and have them even stronger when they come back in the fall next year,” he said.
The success has piqued the interest of the student body. Gosney and Greenbaun predict that next year’s membership will “blow up.” Vizcarra agreed and said while the success is sweet, it also presents new challenges. He said now there is a greater need for more marching band uniforms and funding for more instruments.
“With this new found popularity, we anticipate a surge in membership from next year’s freshman class and from within the high school. We have three tubas and six students playing the same instrument next year,” he said.
Along with the tuba shortage, he said a number of students will be playing baritone saxophone and tenor saxophone. As of now, there are four students playing only two each of these instruments. While most students have their own instruments, the school provides the larger instruments due to their high price tags. For example, a new tuba costs around $2,300.
Vizcarra is hopeful for support from the community. His goal is to provide more music to the public.
“Next year we are working to get the marching band in more parades. In the past RUHS band hasn’t really done many parades, but we will be doing that in the next season,” he said. “I hope to take some of the band members to the Rose Parade next year.”
The next band competition is Saturday, March 7. He anticipates continuing the winning trend this spring for the newly formed freshman symphonic program as well as for the drum line, the dance guard, the concert band and the wind ensemble. It will be held at Santa Susana High School, 3570 Cochran Street, in Simi Valley.
RUHS’ dance guard performs their winning routine. Photo courtesy of Perry Okimoto.