Hard work the key to “Making the Band”

The drums roar, the flags fly and the majorettes spin their batons. When attending a Seymour High School football game you will see them cheering with music to a touchdown and putting on a half time entertainment show to keep you from running to the concessions. Who are they? The Seymour High School Marching Band. Michael Carter is the band director for the Seymour High School band. Carter is a native of Sevier County and a graduate of Seymour High. He has taught music at every grade level in public school and served as a clinician at The UT Honors Band. This is his 7th year with the band. The assistant band director is Dayna Walker. Walker is a former member of The Pride of the Southland Marching Band, symphonic band, pep band and clarinet choir. She was a band director in Morgan County before accepting her position with Sevier County Schools. She currently teaches 5th through 8th grade band at Seymour Intermediate and Middle School and has worked with the Seymour Majorette lines for ten years. So the band is headed up by a couple of professionals who love the music as much as the students. Together the two guide the students to perfect their sound and keep their steps in line. The band is made up of 55 members who work very hard. “They spend hours practicing,” stated Jo Hart whose child is a band member. “They put in a lot of time and work very hard.” Instrumentation consists of, two Alto Saxes, two Tenor Saxes, one Bari Sax, four Trumpets, four Trombones, Piano, Rhythm Guitar, Bass Guitar, DrumSet and Aux Percussion. From the mellophone to the 14-piece color band the band comes together like clockwork to put on a spectacular show. The tunes they practice change from year to year. This year’s selections consist of tunes from various Broadway Shows. “Our opener is called ‘The Heat is On.’ It is from ‘Miss Saigon’. The next song is ‘Masquerade’ which of course is from ‘Phantom of the Opera.’ Our third song is ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from ‘Les Miserables’ and our closer is ‘Kim’s Nightmare’ again from ‘Miss Saigon’ stated Carter. The band performs at all the home and away football games, pep rallies and some community events. “We also have several competitions,” stated Carter. While some kids are on the football field practicing their moves or at home studying for next weeks test, the band members along with the majorettes and color guard practices four hours a week after school and 1 1/2 hours a day everyday in school. Carter describes the bands hectic contest schedule. “We are working toward our contest season which begins at the end of September. We will be going to the Patriot Preview at Jefferson County High School on September 28th. On October 5th we host the Foothills Classic, which is one of the largest band contest in East Tennessee. It has been going on for nine years now. The next week we will travel to East Tennessee State University to compete in their contest on October 12th. On October 19th we will go to South Doyle High School for the Smoky Mountain Invitational where we have taken first place in Class A for the last two years. We will take a Saturday off and then on November 2nd we will compete in the Tennessee State AA Marching Band Championships.” After football season the band will put away all the flags and batons and begin preparation for a Christmas Concert in December. In the spring they will compete at 2 concert competitions and then have another concert in May. In June they will perform at the Disney Magic Music Days. This will be the third time they have performed there since Carter was hired in 1996. The band consistently receives Superior ratings at marching band contests and often wins their class. Running a band program of this caliber generally costs over $30,000 per year. “We are constantly doing car washes or selling something. Our band contest is one of our largest fundraisers along with our November fruit sale. Many Seymour residents have been extremely supportive of the band by coming to our car washes and buying our fruit and most recently the Seymour Eagle blankets. It is still tough to raise this amount of money especially when we are attempting to go on trips to Disney” states Carter. The Seymour High School Band Boosters do their part to help the band get the necessary funds for various events. They meet on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the High School Band room where they discuss and implement new ways to raise money for the band for the entire year. Some of these fundraisers include a fall marching competition, fruit, concessions, car washes, etc. The boosters are run this year by President - Doug Helfenberger, Vice-President - Pam Gadd, Treasurer - Pati Davis and Secretary - Lisa Jenkins. The band has several officers and they work together as a team. This year’s Drum Major is Jay VanSickle he is a sophomore (the second student in Seymour’s history to ever become a drum major that early). The other officers include: Rebecca White - Band Captain, Vanessa Hammond - Woodwind Captain, Sarah Livingston - Brass Captain, Andrea Gadd - Color Guard Captain, Sam Lea - Flag Captain, Shelly Childress and Blair Griffin - Majorette Captains, along with Directors- Michael Carter and Dayna Walker, and Majorette Instructor - Kristi McCord As Michael Carter completes his seventh year as band director, he will tie as the longest staying band director at Seymour with the previous director John Gallagher who is now at Heritage High School. Carter was a senior and Band Captain at Seymour High School when John Gallagher took over the program in 1989. Carter worked as Drum Instructor with the Seymour Band after he graduated Seymour in 1990 and then Majored in Music Education at UT. While on his honeymoon, Michael discovered that he was hired to become Seymour’s director in 1996. “It is an incredible emotional rush to be the band director at my old high school. While in high school I never imagined I would one day lead this band, which has such a great tradition of being a quality organization. Mr. Wilson is the best Principal I have ever worked under. He is incredibly supportive of the band program and the kids in the band work so hard to do what is needed to be successful. It is such a blast to prepare them for competition and use band as a way to help instill character in students by teaching them hard work, commitment to priorities and goal setting. This year has been exceptional with the band.” For more information on the band you can go to www.seymourband.org.