The Newtown Marching Band & Guard hosted nine Connecticut marching band and guard ensembles at its Annual Joseph P. Grasso Marching Band Festival on Saturday, October 5, at Newtown High School’s Blue & Gold Stadium.

Groups came from New Fairfield High School, Danbury High School, East Haven High School, Oliver Platt High School in Meriden, Robert E. Fitch High School in Groton, Bethel High School, Wethersfield High School, Trumbull High School, and Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk. The Newtown High School Singers, directed by Jane Matson, sang the national anthem, and the honor guard featured two alumni band members and Eagle Scouts Ben Taylor and Tim White, as well as Bear Nikitchyuk from BSA Troop 770.

Trophy presenters for the event included First Selectman Dan Rosenthal, Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue, NHS Principal Dr Kimberley Longobucco, and Newtown’s Director of Visual and Performing Arts Michelle Hiscavich.

Ahead of Newtown’s judged exhibition performance of its show Life Sentence, NHS Marching Band & Guard alumni walked onto the field. The musical portion of the evening then culminated with the NHS band and guard’s performance, which received a score of 86.875.

Following completion of the ten performances, the Newtown band and guard recognized its 14 senior high school members. The seniors are drum majors Virginia Hepp and Shilin Ray; backfield conductor Harrison Hermes; percussionists Ellie Minor (percussion captain), Gabe Pontore (front ensemble section leader), Eric Franklin (battery section leader), Dan Fitzpatrick (battery section leader), and Bec Remson; brass players Connor Vignola (brass captain) and Alex Villa; wind players Annie Minor (wind captain), Gabi Ukabi, and Lauren Menousek (tenor sax section leader); and color guard member Moira McKinley (guard captain).

Many people supported the event and made it possible through sponsoring, donating time, and more. Hosting an event of this magnitude is not possible without the support of the Newtown High School Administration, sponsors, and the committed efforts of the NHS custodian, security, and culinary teams, according to president of the Newtown High School Band Parents Corp Laura Taylor. More than 100 parent, family, and alumni volunteers assisted with planning and preparations, hospitality, parking, ticket sales, food prep and sales, 50/50 raffle sales, chaperoning, program book design, ad sales, sign production, and more.

Following the event, NHS Director of Bands Kurt Eckhardt said, “The Joseph Grasso festival was a great day for our program and for Newtown High School. We had beautiful weather, the bands performed well, and our parent volunteers ran a virtually flawless operation. Many staff members from visiting schools, as well as USBands judges and officials, commented on how much they appreciated the friendly, special treatment they received.

“Our own Newtown High School Marching Nighthawks had a great performance in front of the home crowd and a large gathering of Marching Band alumni. They had the second highest score of the festival and their highest of the season thus far,” he said in an e-mail.

Norwalk High School will host a US Bands competition on Saturday, October 12. More than ten band and guard groups, including Newtown, will perform.

Mega Family Tag Sale

Newtown’s next big fundraising event will be its annual Mega Family Tag Sale. Donations will be accepted the evening of Friday, October 18, from 6 pm to 8:45 pm at the NHS cafeteria entrance, 12 Berkshire Road. Students will be on hand to help unload vehicles. Mattresses or pillows will not be accepted. The annual tag sale, along with a bake sale, will be held on Saturday, October 19, from 9 am to 2 pm. Contact info@nhsbandguard.com with questions.

For more information about the Newtown Marching Band & Color Guard, visit newtownbandandguard.weebly.com.