Rosemount band marching its way atop Midwest pack

Years of work come to a head today for Rosemount High's band as it defends its title at the Metrodome.

By Sarah Lemagie, Star Tribune

Last update: October 26, 2007 - 9:13 PM

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IF YOU GO

WHAT: Third annual Youth in Music Marching Band Championships

WHEN: Today. Preliminaries: 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Finals: 7 p.m.-10 p.m.

WHERE: Metrodome

WHO: Nineteen bands from six states will compete, including Rosemount High School's.

TICKETS: Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. at Gate H, and doors open at 10 a.m. Tickets, which are sold separately for prelims and finals, cost $10 for students with IDs and $15 for adults.

what's at stake

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Amanda Kreun tried not to smile at the awards ceremony. The Rosemount High School marching band had just given its best performance of the season at a prestigious regional competition in St. Louis, and Kreun, a drum major, stood at attention on the field as the judges' results were announced.

Ninth place, the band's rank two years ago, came and went. Then seventh, the band's placement last year.

When the band finally heard its name at third place -- the highest a Minnesota band has ever placed at the competition -- Kreun stepped forward with the band's three other drum majors, saluted and accepted the trophy for Rosemount. Then, when last weekend's ceremony wrapped up, she burst into tears.

"None of us expected to get this far this season," she said.

They should have. The Rosemount marching band, which defends its state title today in the Metrodome at the Youth in Music Marching Band Championships, has earned a reputation in the past three years as one of the best bands not only in Minnesota, but in the Midwest.

A frantic pace

Still, the band takes nothing for granted -- an attitude that was apparent at its last field rehearsal Thursday night. Practice officially started at 6 p.m., but by 5:40 instrument cases were strewn just inside the main entrance of the Irish Dome next to the high school and clusters of musicians tuned with their sections as the color guard warmed up near the end zone.

By 5:50, Leon Sieve was giving a pep talk that echoed through the loudspeakers. "It's important that we revive the show and take it to the next level," said Sieve, one of the band's three directors. "Our time with this show is extremely limited. In two days, it's history."

In Rosemount, as at many Minnesota high schools, playing in the marching band eats as much time as playing football. The 162-member band started work in mid-July on this year's show, which features music from a Cirque du Soleil production called "O." It's an ambitious arrangement that shows off the band's front line -- the percussion players who don't march -- and requires the rest of the band to march as fast as 198 beats a minute.

The pace still leaves some musicians winded, but by now they know the show so well that the precise beat of sneakers on AstroTurf thrums under even the fastest tempos.

At each break came the command: "Set-dress-set!" The players checked their positions before Sieve called a do-over. "Run it back quickly. We're going to do it again. 10 ... 9 ... 8 ..." Trombonists sprinted across the field.

Thursday's practice was about honing details: making sure shoelaces faced the crowd when marchers pointed their toes, dealing with those two dotted half notes in the trumpet section. But the directors also added a new move or two, something they've done so much this season that the show has grown from eight to nine-and-a-half minutes.

As Sieve ran the band through trouble spots, co-directors Steve Olsen and John Theisen huddled with individual players or checked the formations. The trio divvy up duties according to their strengths, with Theisen directing the percussionists, Olsen in charge of the wind sections and Sieve coordinating the color guard and field movements.

Out of the ashes

Rosemount's recent success is partly the upswing of a natural cycle that the band program goes through every time the school district builds a new high school, Olsen said. When Eastview opened a decade ago, Rosemount lost about half its band members, he said. Now, the band has rebuilt itself and its strength reflects the reincarnation of "the phoenix rising out of the Eastview split."

But players also say the band's first trip to the Bands of America regional championships two years ago opened their eyes to a new level of excellence. After going her sophomore year, "I understood what goal I was working toward," said drum major Jasmine Radosevich. "I understood the level that I needed to be at to compete against these really great bands."

Sarah Lemagie • 612-673-7557

Sarah Lemagie • slemagie@startribune.com

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