They're back and will mark their return with a bang.

After a lengthy hiatus because it lacked a director, the Santa Maria High School band will perform in the 30th annual Bandarama showcase April 5.

The showcase features all sorts of bands - from junior high and high school bands to the Allan Hancock College Community Band - all of whom hail from the Santa Maria Valley.

The showcase is the largest of its kind in the Valley, organizers said.

Freshman Eduardo Solis, who plays the tuba, has previously performed in Bandarama with the Fesler Junior High School band.

However, this year's event is particularly special to him.

“I'm actually excited because I've been in Bandarama for two years and I'm looking forward to being with the high school,” he said.

Advertisement

For two years, Santa Maria High did not have a band because the school could not find a band director, and it has been four years since the band last played in Bandarama, said Director Herb Adams.

Adams was pulled out of retirement in September to head the band, and is also one of Bandarama's original founding directors.

The showcase came into being when Adams - at the time directing a junior high honor band - and several of his colleagues decided to invite all the area bands to do a big, combined program.

However, they did not want to make it a contest.

“We just wanted a free concert for the public that involved all the bands,” Adams said.

The show quickly became a tradition, and continued onward even during the years in which the leaderless Santa Maria High School band did not play.

In spite of the hiatus, the Santa Maria high band has returned in full form, even doubling in size from around 12 members to about 25.

In its first year back in action, the band took first place in the Santa Maria Christmas Parade, though its members did not even have proper uniforms.

The current uniforms are old and too small, so band members pieced together wool band pants with black long-sleeved T-shirts and Santa hats.

“That was a neat feather in the cap,” Adams said of the win. “We were competing against Righetti with their uniforms and we took ‘em.”

Just before school stopped for spring break, the members of the Santa Maria high band gathered in the school's music room for one of their final rehearsals before the big show.

The room was filled with a loud cacophony created by students tuning their instruments.

Eventually, Adams silenced the group, and lifted his baton to lead them first through the percussion-heavy piece, “The Tempest,” and later through a soothing rendition of “In This Quiet Place.”

Senior LeAnna Baisch, a bass clarinet player who plans to major in music and become a teacher or conductor, said she was happy to have the band back.

Though Baisch now also performs in the Hancock band, she was on her own music-wise last year without the Santa Maria high band because her parents' work schedules made it impossible for them to transport her to and from Hancock.

She said she missed her music immensely, which she has loved “ever since I picked up the clarinet.”

“This actually is my passion ... I never knew I was actually going to get this far playing music,” she said.

Bandarama will begin at 7 p.m. at the Pioneer Valley High School gym, located at 675 Panther Drive in Santa Maria.

Admission is free.

For more information, call 922-1305, Ext. 5230.

Natalie Ragus can be reached at 347-4580 or nragus@santamariatimes.com

March 28, 2008