With the Fallston High School marching season coming to a close, new Band director Ariel Breidenbaugh ended the season with a great Marching Band Exhibition at Bel Air High School. Playing “Everyone’s Everything” while also marching “Evil Ways,” “Smooth,” and “She’s Not There,” the band was cheered on by all ten marching bands from every high school in the county. Starting with band camp weeks before school started, the band has shown great improvement throughout the season as they prepared for the exhibition.  

“It was really cool the support everyone had for all the other bands in the county,” said Band Director, Ms. Breidenbaugh. “We can all appreciate the work that went into everything and it’s finally an area that’s not a loud football game where everyone is not fully focusing on the show.” 

With Mr. Harvey, the previous band director, leaving and having little to no time to prepare for the football games, no one knew what to expect with this season and was shocked how everything came together just in time for the exhibition. Working as a band to perfect the drill was a struggle, and often involved laps around the track to refocus, but all the pieces came together for the final performance. Remembering the exact spot you need to step to in the correct number of counts while playing your music in often cold weather does not bode well for many but was expected and required for all the students in the marching band.  

“I was just more worried about how you guys perceived how your performance went,” said Ms. Breidenbaugh to her band students. “You all are very hard on yourself, which is awesome. As performers, you know you are always growing but it’s also understanding you did do a lot of work with a new person and that’s still something to be applauded.” 

Ms. Breidenbaugh has a clear plan for the future of the Fallston band. She has seating auditions, fundraisers, ample parades, matching Santa hats, and more practices with the band as a whole, just proving again that Ms. Breidenbaugh is going to continue to push everyone to their best this year.