As the Marching Miners carry on a tradition that dates back to the 60s, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) hosted their annual Band Day on Sept. 20, where every high school band in El Paso was invited to join the Marching Miners at one of their half-time shows.
Band Day showcases the band community El Paso has by joining together “rival” schools and allowing interactions between high schoolers and college students in marching band. This year’s theme for Band Day was “Hero’s Night”, commemorating the military, police personnel and educators that have contributed to the city.
Director of Athletic Bands and Associate Director of Bands, Brandon Houghtalen, D.M.A, oversaw over 500 band students that day, starting at 2 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.
“When you have over 300 high school students from all over the El Paso area joining the 250 Marching Miners, it’s a lot of people,” Houghtalen said. “But it just underscores how important music is to our community and how much a part of the musical community UTEP is.”
The Marching Miners honored four retired music educators, Colonel Lowell E. Graham, Kenneth Capshaw, Barbra Lambrecht and Richard Lambrecht. Senior Karen Carrillo, a drum major at UTEP, was inspired by her educational heroes to become a band director after graduation.
“Teachers are honestly like heroes, which is why I want to be a teacher because one of my teachers was literally my hero,” Carrillo said. “We actually have some of our own teachers here that retired because they are heroes. It’s important. It’s the least that we could do.”
Maintaining band culture after high school graduation can be scary for some students, but UTEP Band Day serves as an introduction for high schoolers on how relationships and unity in a multigenerational community are important according to Dr. Houghtalen.
All band members participating in the half-time performance learned “Summon the Heroes” by John Williams, “Respect” by Otis Redding and “Golden” from “K-Pop Demon Hunters”, a piece written by the teaching assistants of the Marching Miners.
“They [the Marching Miners] have rehearsed ‘Golden’ for a couple of weeks, but the high schoolers and the Marching Miners only practiced together for the first time today for an hour,” Houghtalen said. “I thought it was an efficient rehearsal; I was pleased with their efforts.”
Even after only having one group rehearsal, the turnout for the half-time performance was well received, with the crowd in the stands cheering on the band. The high school students were dismissed after their half-time show was over, but the excitement of being beside the Marching Minders encouraged some to stay, even until the football game ended.
Working with seven different drills and shows may seem difficult for some, even while working with over 300 new band members, but undergraduate teaching assistant Logan Jones found a way to make it work.
“The high schoolers are very receptive, and great to work with. It’s a lot of work; we were out there at maybe 2 p.m. and we stayed out until 4 p.m. working on it. It’s hot, it’s sweaty, but we had a really, really good time,” Jones said. “It’s great to see all of these kids from the community come out and just have a great time with us, I really hope it helps open up their eyes to the experience of what college band is like.”
UTEP Band’s Band Day has been a tradition for many years and continues to inspire new students to join the Marching Miners. Students like senior Ana Grace Hunter from Franklin High school, learn to make new friends and find new opportunities.
“That thing about community and the entire band family coming together is super cool. It’s really uplifting to see everybody cheering each other on,” Hunter said. “All these rival schools that go against each other are saying ‘Hey dude your show was so awesome you guys are so cool.’ It’s so cool.”
Showing up and showing out is a part of football games, and the Marching Miners continue to show their ongoing support for not only the band community, but the El Paso community as a whole.
Abigail Pedroza is the arts & culture editor for The Prospector and may be reached at [email protected]
