The Red and Silver Brigade, BV West’s marching band has just finished another successful season. The band works hard throughout all of summer in order to prepare for a rigorous competitive season during late September and all of October.

This year, their show “Call of the Wild” features different aspects of a variety of animals.

“The show is about displaying different animals, especially featuring birds, lions, tigers, and monkeys,”  sophomore and baritone player Kelsey Norkey said. “As the show progresses, different emotions and elements of the wild are shown through marching techniques, expression from performers, and the choreography done by them.”

The show is elaborate, featuring singing, dancing and of course, music. Each performer sacrifices hours of their time every day to perfect the performance, and their dedication has paid off with the results from previous competitions.

“The band has done very well this season, likely better than the band has done in its recent history,” Norkey said. “Although we didn’t make St. Louis super-regional finals, we jumped around 20 places from last year, and we were less than half a point from making finals, so I’d say it was a highly successful performance.”

In addition to St. Louis, the band has also done well at earlier compeitions, placing third overall at a regional contest in Blue Springs, and winning an outstanding color guard award at a regional competition in Springfield.  

The band’s final contest was state championships on Oct. 28, where they received first in their class in the preliminary round and won the state title in the final round.