“We decided to move our marching band season to the spring,” explained LN band director, Aaron Mirakovits. 

Back in August when Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) had paused football and was planning on running the sport in the spring, KPS had a tough decision to make affecting both the Loy Norrix and Kalamazoo Central bands. Although the marching band is not entirely dependent on the football team, it was unknown if any other festivals, competitions, or parades would be happening.  

The band had their pre-season and Band Camp at the end of July and early August as normally scheduled. Then, they had to stop in-person rehearsals for the virtual class and didn’t begin rehearsing with the full band again until the end of March.  

Virtual performances weren’t a possibility due to the logistics, software, and equipment requirements. Mirakovits said, “The virtual performances you may have seen are highly produced and edited.” 

After very minimal rehearsal time, the spring marching band was able to come together to perform their first show in conjunction with the Kalamazoo Central band on Saturday, May 5th, 2021.

“It was great to have a live performance of music for parents and family members,” said Mirakovits. 

Mirakovits said the band had about 16 to 18 hours of rehearsal to put all this together, which equates to about 3 days of Band Camp. This is only about 5% of the rehearsal time of a normal season. 

In those 16 to 18 hours of preparation, some students had to sit out rehearsals because they might have had a COVID-19 exposure at other activities. Mirakovits stated that the band received musician-specific PPE (bell covered and musician face masks) but acknowledged that it did take some getting used to. 

With all of the precautions that the band took this year, they are fortunate to say that there hasn’t been a single COVID case linked to the band yet. As the state of Michigan is opening up more and CDC guidelines are changing, KPS is now allowing 4 spectators instead of 2 per participant. 

The marching band will have another performance this Saturday, May 15th at 7:00 p.m. at Kalamazoo Central.

Check out the LN band website to stay updated on the Loy Norrix Band. 

You can also check out this YouTube playlist with each piece the band performed on May 5th, along with a combined performance with KC of “America the Beautiful” at the end.