The Longmont Combined Schools Drumline won the state championship in its division at Saturday’s competition at the Denver Coliseum, narrowly beating the percussion ensemble from Lafayette’s Centaurus High School.
The Longmont drumline includes 30 students from Longmont High, Silver Creek High, Lyons Middle/Senior High and Westview Middle schools. At the state competition, Longmont scored 88.388 — about a 10th of a point ahead of Centaurus.
“We’re always looking for something to improve,” director Dave Marvin said. “We want to be consistent and perform at the highest level we can.”
The Longmont drumline placed sixth at the Winter Guard International World Championships in Dayton, Ohio, last year and is competing there again this year. The world competition starts Thursday.
“We’re so excited about the rest of our season,” said Simon Von Hatten, a Longmont High senior and the marching percussion section leader. “We’re just so incredibly excited to go back and have another chance to do the best we can.”
This year’s Longmont show, titled “Playing With Colors,” incorporates movement, costumes and props along with music.
“It’s very much like a theatrical production,” Marvin said.
The show features a variety of instruments to represent different musical “colors,” including an electric harp, a hammered dulcimer and a gourd instrument from Ghana. The students who march while playing wore hand chimes, while foil was added to some instruments for a different sound.
“We specifically look for interesting instruments we can use,” Marvin said.
Along with instruments not typically included in percussion ensembles, the show includes moveable, translucent vinyl props in eight colors that create new colors as the students move behind them.
“I love the theme this year,” Marvin said. “It’s very colorful, and it makes it contrast from a lot of other groups. There’s a lot visually that makes us unique.”
Von Hatten, who is part of the drumline for his fifth season after starting in eighth grade, played snare drum this season and last season, as well as previously playing a synthesizer and a marimba.
“It has become this amazing community and family,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Other area drumlines that competed at state included those from Broomfield High, Louisville’s Monarch High and Broomfield’s Legacy High, which also took first in its division.
