Pride of the Valley Marching Band debuts their 2023 show

By Madeline Lavelle ’27, staff writer  

The Pride of the Valley Marching Band kicked off their 2023 season with a striking performance of Rock/Roch.  

The band made their first show appearance on Friday, Sept. 1, at Lebanon Valley’s kickoff football game against Franklin & Marshall College. The new show combines segments from “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” by AC/DC, “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses and “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden to create a grand celebration of the rock and roll era. 

The band is led by seasoned director Dr. Christopher Heffner, who has been at LVC for 17 years. Dr. Heffner also leads the creation of each year’s show. For this year’s show, Heffner took inspiration from one of his favorite composers, Rachmaninoff.  

 “His themes are so stereotypically romantic, you know, and they’re dark and they’re big, and I think with marching band, I’m always looking for big dark moving moments,”  Heffner said.

“If we’re doing a show that is Rachmaninoff, I wanted ‘Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution,’” Heffner explained, “I just thought that the song title would work well and there was potential with the theme to be played with in other movements.” 

The opener of the show contains segments from “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution.”  

“I like the slow starts, the distant starts into a big moment, so we’re starting with the Rachmaninoff and then we’re going into just like a fun ‘poppy’ [music],” Heffner said. “I know that it’s not my favorite Guns N’ Roses tune (“Welcome to the Jungle”), but I know it’s recognizable to the audience and I know that they’ll dig into something like that because it’s just fun.” 

The ballad takes inspiration from the 90’s hit “Black Hole Sun.”  

“I thought ‘Back Hole Sun,’ based on the west world stuff, would be a good ballad,” Heffner said, “So, what I try to do is I try to imagine tempos and themes; I imagine the opening cords of the second movement and how that can morph into black hole sun, so what I start doing is putting together those ideas and start sending them to the winds arranger.”  

The show ends with an intense bang, wrapping the segments of the show together.  

“[The] closer just being so symphonic and big, and it also gives the drumline and opportunity to stretch, like we can’t stretch in ‘Welcome to the Jungle,’ and I know that,” Heffner said.  

The band consists of 126 members, which is the highest number since the pandemic. 

“There is no other school this size that has a marching band this size; it just doesn’t exist, this is it,” Heffner said. 

Heffner also mentioned how strong this group is compared to other years.  

“I didn’t think it would be as good as it is,” Heffner said, “This could be the strongest band since I’ve been here, and this is year 17.” 

The band is set to perform during halftime at every LVC home football game this season. In addition, Pride of the Valley will perform at two exhibitions next month. These include the Allentown Collegiate Marching Band Festival on Sunday, Oct. 1, and the Bands of Lebanon County Exhibition on Saturday, Oct. 21.