MONTVALE—The Pascack Hills Marching Broncos gave it their all at the Midland Park Performing Arts Parents’ Music in the Park XXV competition on Sunday, Oct. 9, squaring off against programs from around northern New Jersey.
And crushed it.
By the district’s account on the Pascack Hills High School website, “The band competed in group B with other schools in our size and took home first place! The band also was awarded several caption awards for outstanding section performance.” The band earned best music, best color guard, best percussion, and best marching.
This first competition of the year was promptly followed by the Marching Broncos’ appearance at the New Jersey Band Directors Marching Association competition at Verona High School on Saturday, Oct. 15.
Under director of bands Ryan Dore, the Broncos threw themselves into their show, Memories, which features songs “Thnks fr the Mmrs” by Fall Out Boy, “Clarity” by Zedd, and “Confident” by Demi Lovato.
This time the competition sounded a stronger push.
Dore told Pascack Press on Oct 19, “The Verona competition was a big shift in the expectations for the band. Competition was in a different class, if you will; they didn’t do as well — but I was really proud of how well they performed and what they saw that weekend. It was a good time.”
He said, “From an experience perspective, I told them going into it, ‘This is the next level, and you’re going to meet bigger bands, bands with more stuff, and are more competitive. So this is kind of the future, really. If you wanted to go there, this is what the future would look like.”
Dore joined the faculty at Pascack Hills in 2017 after a four-year tenure at South Plainfield High School. There, he was in charge of the concert band, jazz band and marching band.
At PH, he oversees the Concert Band preparation for the winter and spring concerts, and music technology and guitar classes. His extracurricular activities include Pep Band, Jazz Band, AV director and auditorium director.
The Hills Music Department, under supervisor Noemi Rodríguez-Grimshaw, serves Montvale and Woodcliff Lake.
The Pascack Valley High School Marching Band, serving Hillsdale and River Vale, and led by director of bands Daniel Pasquale, includes a marching band that performs at varsity football games, band festivals, and parades. It’s participated in the North Jersey Band Festival for over 30 years.
Broncos on the Road
PH’s student news outlet, the Trailblazer, reported when the Marching Broncos performed at an away football game for the first time — in Dover, this Sept. 30.
(The now 6-0 Pascack Hills varsity football team won that away conference game against Dover by a blistering score of 35-0, then followed it up with an Oct. 7 drubbing of Cliffside Park, 34-0, and Bergen Tech, 42-0 — the latter two non-conference games.)
The Trailblazer‘s Bethany Chen and Sabrina Moe had the band’s story Oct. 8, noting that the marchers, led by Dore and assistant directors Abby Askaaska, Buddy Fox, Xavier Villavicencio, and choreography and color guard instructor Adria Warfield, performed Memories.
Dore told the Trailblazer, “Going to the away game was a new experience for the marching band, but I was really looking forward to it. Traveling to support the football team and bring some Hills pride out to Dover is what the band is all about. I was very proud of how the band performed.”
As a band director, Dore says, “It is my hope to instill in my students a lifelong appreciation for music. I am seeking to pass on the importance of music education in schools today, in the hopes that students will see the impact music has on their lives.”
Building a program
Dore told Pascack Press that when he arrived — he’s in his sixth year at the school — he found a program “in hibernation.”
“At Hills there’s a lot of great athletic programs and extracurriculars, and [the band] had just kind of faded away. I inherited a pep band of 11 students … they were curious about what [a marching band] would look like,” and they went to work, he said.
“Over the past three years we’ve put on a halftime performance, and we’ve marched for the last three, four years. The program has really taken off, the kids have bought into it, and they’re excited. They love providing that element of school spirit and playing their instruments and being together. It’s really cool,” Dore said.
He said, “Watching this program succeed through Covid and to still put on a show — that was my biggest push: ‘We can’t play our instruments inside, but guess what, we can out on the marching field. Let’s go, rock and roll.’”
He said the roster is in the 30s this year, and the kids had asked to perform at an away game. “And I was like, you know what? Let’s do it. So we coordinated U-Haul trucks and buses and we went, and the kids had a great time. So I definitely envision that being a part of our schedule in the future.”
Dore said the administration provides a budget for supplies and transportation, for which he is grateful.
“As we’ve gotten the marching band program up and running they’ve been able and very generous to match what I’m doing. So they’re going, ‘The band’s growing; OK, we can try and help your budget a little bit.’ It’s always a tough ask, with budgets being cut in a lot of areas, but Mr. [Timothy] Wieland, the principal, has been very supportive.”
Dore credits supervisor Noemi Rodríguez-Grimshaw for finding opportunities for the Marching Broncos to showcase their talents out in the community. He called that commitment vital, and said the kids had leapt to the challenge.
The Marching Broncos have been invited to perform at Montvale’s Christmas tree lighting, and they set the tone at the recent grand opening festivities, in Montvale, of Party City’s corporate headquarters.
Dore said, “For me, the heart of a marching band is the kids and being a family — being a unit. These kids spend so much time together and work so hard. I tell the kids all the time, ‘You are the hardest-working kids in the school: You start working in the summer heat for eight hours a day; you work all the way through late October and early November when it’s cold; and yeah, it might even snow. Not only are you putting a physical show on the field, with forms and movements, you’re also playing instruments and being expressive and creating a party atmosphere.’”