{"id":10281,"date":"2023-09-26T17:58:36","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T17:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/wordpress\/lavie\/?p=10281"},"modified":"2023-09-26T17:58:36","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T17:58:36","slug":"pride-of-the-valley-marching-band-debuts-their-2023-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2023\/09\/26\/pride-of-the-valley-marching-band-debuts-their-2023-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride of the Valley Marching Band debuts their 2023 show"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Madeline Lavelle \u201927, staff writer  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The band made their first show appearance on Friday, Sept. 1, at Lebanon Valley\u2019s kickoff football game against Franklin & Marshall College. The new show combines segments from \u201cRock and Roll Ain\u2019t Noise Pollution\u201d by AC\/DC, \u201cWelcome to the Jungle\u201d by Guns N\u2019 Roses and \u201cBlack Hole Sun\u201d by Soundgarden to create a grand celebration of the rock and roll era.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s show. For this year\u2019s show, Heffner took inspiration from one of his favorite composers, Rachmaninoff.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u201cHis themes are so stereotypically romantic, you know, and they\u2019re dark and they\u2019re big, and I think with marching band, I’m always looking for big dark moving moments,\u201d \u00a0Heffner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we\u2019re doing a show that is Rachmaninoff, I wanted \u2018Rock and Roll Ain\u2019t Noise Pollution,\u2019\u201d Heffner explained, \u201cI just thought that the song title would work well and there was potential with the theme to be played with in other movements.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opener of the show contains segments from \u201cWelcome to the Jungle\u201d and \u201cRock and Roll Ain\u2019t Noise Pollution.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like the slow starts, the distant starts into a big moment, so we\u2019re starting with the Rachmaninoff and then we\u2019re going into just like a fun \u2018poppy\u2019 [music],\u201d Heffner said. \u201cI know that it’s not my favorite Guns N\u2019 Roses tune (\u201cWelcome to the Jungle\u201d), but I know it’s recognizable to the audience and I know that they\u2019ll dig into something like that because it’s just fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ballad takes inspiration from the 90\u2019s hit \u201cBlack Hole Sun.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought \u2018Back Hole Sun,\u2019 based on the west world stuff, would be a good ballad,\u201d Heffner said, \u201cSo, 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.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show ends with an intense bang, wrapping the segments of the show together.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[The] closer just being so symphonic and big, and it also gives the drumline and opportunity to stretch, like we can\u2019t stretch in \u2018Welcome to the Jungle,\u2019 and I know that,\u201d Heffner said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band consists of 126 members, which is the highest number since the pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no other school this size that has a marching band this size; it just doesn\u2019t exist, this is it,\u201d Heffner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heffner also mentioned how strong this group is compared to other years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think it would be as good as it is,\u201d Heffner said, \u201cThis could be the strongest band since I’ve been here, and this is year 17.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Madeline Lavelle \u201927, 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, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}