The sounds of everything from Beethoven to Lady Gaga rang throughout Arizona Stadium as the bands put forth their best halftime shows for the 57th Annual UA Band Day.
Thousands of spectators and supporters gathered at Arizona Stadium on Saturday to enjoy the musical and auxiliary performances of the Pride of Arizona marching band as well as 37 high school marching bands.
“”It’s always great to see the high school students perform and see the expressions on their faces as they come off the field,”” said Scott Matlick, associate director of the Pride of Arizona marching band and coordinator of UA Band Day.
Beryl Kitamura sat in the stands in support of her daughter, a band director at Chandler High School.
“”I attend every year,”” Kitamura said. “”Love the music, love the bands.””
Bands perform for both fans and a panel of judges.
“”We performed the music of Journey,”” said Xochitl Moroyoqui, a drum major and senior at Sunnyside High School. “”I think we did amazing. It was definitely our greatest performance all year.””
After the morning performances, the Pride of Arizona took the field with the band Muse’s music. Spectators joined the band members in the chorus, echoing the words “”no one’s gonna take me alive.””
“”It’s really exciting to see the Pride perform because there is so much noise and such complicated drills,”” said Anna Couture, a drum major from Cienega High School. Cienega’s Copper Thunder marching band performed music from Riverdance.
“”It was one of our better performances,”” Couture said.
At the end of the festival, the Milton B. Nunamaker Award was presented to two bands: Mountain Ridge High School’s Pride of the West from Glendale, Ariz., and Bel Air High School’s Big Red Pride from El Paso, Texas. The bus carrying the Bel Air students broke down on the road. Their performance was pushed back to the last of the day to give them enough time to get to Tucson, Matlick said.
“”They got here in just enough time to get off the bus, get their uniforms on, and spend about three minutes warming up their instruments,”” Matlick said. “”Then they were still able to go out onto the field and give one of the best performances of the day.””
