Kilbourne ready to step into busy band season

They're fired up and ready to go.

That's what Worthington Kilbourne High School director Phil Day says of the senior leaders of this year's marching band.

Seventy-two musicians strong, the marching band stepped into two weeks of band camp at the school this week, and will walk door-to-door this Saturday collecting donations from community members.

Band members will be out in pairs on Tag Day, knocking on doors and asking for money to help support band activities and to buy instruments and uniforms. Previous Tag Days ended with approximately $10,000 in donations, Day said.

"We've always had a lot of good community support," he said.

Band season starts early this year, with the first football game of the Kilbourne season set for Aug. 22 at Crew Stadium.

It continues through football season, community appearances and contest season, including both the Buckeye Classic at Ohio State University and the Preview of Champions at Thomas Worthington on Oct. 4.

This year's contest show is called Altered States and features an original composition by Noah Taylor, a friend of the director's, with visual moves designed by Jordy Vilanova.

Taylor's style is very much like film music, creating images of motion pictures in listeners' minds, Day said.

The musicians practiced the music for the first time a week ago.

"They loved it," Day said.

The visuals will expand on the theme with different shapes that disperse and return in other forms, he said.

The band will become more involved this season with the Mid States Band Association (MSBA), a consortium of high school bands in the Dayton area.

Unlike the Ohio Music Educators Association (OMEA), which holds contests in which both Worthington high schools have participated in the past, the MSBA classifies schools according to the size of their bands.

The OMEA classifies bands based on the size of their schools.

The MSBA is a better fit because Kilbourne is a large school with a moderately sized band, Day said.

Unlike at many schools, marching band is not part of the curriculum at Kilbourne.

"It's a larger time commitment out of school because of that," Day said.