By Nabi Dressler
News Editor
Prospect Marching Knights (PMK) participated in the 45th Annual State of Illinois Marching Band Championship last Saturday, Oct. 29, in Normal. As one of their last competitions of the season, PMK won the Illinois 5A State Championship and placed second out of the 45 bands performing. They placed behind the consecutive winners, Marian Catholic High School.
According to http://triblocal.com, PMK also won all “High Achievement” awards for effect, musical performance and visual performance. They also won “Best Crowd Appeal” in Class 5A preliminaries.
The competition took place at Hancock Stadium and lasted throughout the day. According to the invitational’s preliminary schedule on ISU’s band website, http://bands.illinoisstate.edu, each band performed for roughly 14 minutes. PMK performed “Leonardo’s Dream”.
PMK has attended this invitational, which is held at Illinois State University, for last four years and used to attend a long time ago in the 1990s, according to Director of Bands Chris Barnum. Barnum was very proud of the way the band performed last Saturday.
“It was definitely our best performance of the year so far,” Barnum said.
To achieve the success PMK experienced at ISU, the band rehearsed prior to the invitational, with evening practices on weekdays last for three hours and take place twice a week. They also rehearse during each school day because marching band is a class.
According to Barnum, PMK rehearsed throughout last week to make sure their best performance of the season at that point was at ISU. In general, the band tries to do “everything [they] can to make sure Saturday is the best performance [they have] had.”
PMK’s last competition of this season, the Bands of America Super Regional Championships, is this Saturday, Nov. 5, in Indianapolis, IN.