Fall is Showtime for High School Marching Band

November 10, 2022
2022 BHS Marching Band has been enjoying the season of competition, Bedford Day, performances and Football games. Courtesy Image

Here’s a pleasant benefit to the extended home football season at Bedford High School: an additional halftime performance by the Bedford High School marching band.

And unlike the outcome of the game on Sabourin Field, spectators know in advance that the band will be a winner that day.

Fall is the pre-eminent season for the marching band. Besides the halftime performances, there are competitions, the Bedford Day parade, and Veterans Day ceremonies. There’s also an abbreviated spring calendar: the all-school vertical concert and the Memorial Day parade.

This is Jim Felker’s 23rd year directing the band and teaching instrumental music in the Bedford schools – well, mostly instrumental. “I taught middle school chorus for a couple of years,” he said.

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The band did well in its most recent competition, Felker reported: fourth place (a hair’s breadth from third) out of eight in its division of the New England Scholastic Band Association in Reading on Oct. 30. The band finished third a week earlier in a regional match in Wakefield.

Some of the bands against which Bedford competes are “curricular,” Felker said: “They’re meeting as a class during the week. As long as I’ve been here, we rehearse two nights a week, three hours apiece, and summer band camp.”

“The fact that we are able to stand with big dogs that do curricular work makes me so proud of these kids,” Felker said. “It’s a testament to their hard work, student leadership, and staff. If we had a marching band class, where would these kids be at?”

Jim Felker, BHS Marching Band director describes this years crew as “super focused, really fun with a lot of camaraderie. Fast friends is the way to put it with this group. And no drama – which is always at play in high school.” Courtesy Image

The 2022 marching band totals 29 students, Felker said: 18 playing wind instruments, eight percussionists, and three in the color guard. Drum majors are Sahana Kumar and Parker Anderson LaPorte.

After missing the 2020 season in deference to Covid-19, Felker said, “Last year, it was really hard to get new blood. That was a challenge for us.” The director decided to forego the competition schedule and align with a “show circuit.”

“We got a good influx this year – eight from the eighth grade and one seventh-grader chose to participate and they were a real shot in the arm for the ensemble. And they are going to continue to be for the next few years,” he said.

The young musicians “came to band camp with no expectations – we showed them and they did it. There was sort of a freshness about it,” Felker observed.  

The band, he said, is “super focused, really fun with a lot of camaraderie. Fast friends is the way to put it with this group. And no drama – which is always at play in high school.”

“We are really hoping to continue to recruit, including non-musicians, into the color guard. We would like to see more flags on the field, and this is especially good for kids with dance experience,” the director said.

Felker earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, in music, with a concentration in music education. His predecessor was Brian Reagan, an old friend, who was promoted to assistant principal at BHS in 1999. He advised Felker, who was teaching middle school in his hometown of Haverhill about the vacancy.

This year’s Marching Band saw an influx of younger students, who have stepped right into place giving some “freshness” to the band. Courtesy Image.

“Bedford is a second home now. I never dreamt I would have a career so fulfilling and in one place,” Felker declared. (Reagan is now superintendent of schools in Waltham.)

Felker said he is working in the same place, albeit renovated. “In came the teaching band, beginner piano, and music technology. (Former Department Chair) Barry Low and I created world drumming; now there are four sections.” 

This year Felker conducts the jazz band and still teaches music tech; last year he also taught guitar. His resume also includes a couple of years handling beginning band at Job Lane School.

“My goal is to leave the program better than I found it and build as much as I can,” Felker asserted.

Seven years ago, Felker, a drummer, and BHS graduate Catherine Donato, vocalist, launched a wedding band that now is part of the Kahootz Entertainment lineup, called KB3.

“I still play as much as I can,” Felker said. “My ethos is if I’m out making music, I feel it’s more authentic to be able to talk about what I’m doing. It keeps me fresh, and it’s important to keep creating.” He added, “A little rest is OK.”

If the Bucs win Friday night at Sabourin Field, the next state tournament game will be on a neutral field, and Felker hopes that will be another opportunity for the marching band, if allowed by tournament officials. In any case, the musicians will be back out there on Thanksgiving morning.

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