A tuba player drills during band camp. Photo by Sarah Colson
By Sarah Colson
Marching drills, dropping and giving 20, preparing for the season opener on August 14—the Science Hill High School Topper Band worked hard all last week at this year’s band camp.
Presenting, “A Day in the Life,” as its season opener, the 155-member band will perform songs expressing what it’s like to live “a day in the life of someone in New York City,” according to Band Director Carson Vermillion. The songs the band has been working on all week will be performed, opening with “Late for Work” then moving through “The Grind” and “Going Home” which Vermillion described as a “retrospective tune.” The closer for the show will be “Night Life.”
Drum majors this year are seniors Delany Lawson and Evan Stephens and sophomore Emily Thomey. The competition schedule for the fall is the following:
Oct 3: @ Tennessee High
Oct 10: @ Daniel Boone
Oct 17: @ Western Carolina University
Oct 24: @ Science Hill
Nov 7: @ University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
This will be the third year the Science Hill Topper Band will host its own competition. Vermillion said along with the excellent facilities at Science Hill and the surrounding amenities that showcase not only the high school but Johnson City as well, the band’s long history of experience makes them a great host site.
“We run a top notch competition because we’re used to competing,” he said. “We’ve seen the good and the bad so we try to organize our competition to be a well-run, highly organized, educational experience for the students and band directors and at the same time be very entertaining for the parents and other spectators.”
To follow the Topper Band more closely, visit shhsbandboosters.org.
