Mira Costa High School’s ‘bandos’ have a message for the public: There’s more to them than just marching.
“We have a chronic problem that when anyone speaks of Costa Bands, most people think of Marching Band,” said Gretchen Renshaw, president of Mira Costa Band Boosters. “While Marching Band is a fantastic part of our bands program, it is by no means the entirety.”
To drive this message home, more than a hundred members of the school’s Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Wind Ensemble and three Jazz Bands will station themselves throughout Manhattan Village on April 13 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and perform live for donations at the first annual “Music at the Mall” fundraiser event.
There will be seven stations total: four throughout the mall and one each inside California Pizza Kitchen, Corner Bakery and Open Sesame. At each station, a group of two to seven Mira Costa musicians will play 20-minute sets, performing a wide variety of pieces from Mozart to Don McLean and Carmen to “Gangnam Style,” said Joel Carlson, Mira Costa’s music director.
“People may find it interesting that all of the great things that the Marching Band does is fueled by the learning that goes on in the Concert Bands,” Carlson said.
Mira Costa’s music program serves more than 180 students, a majority of whom are enrolled in more than one ensemble. About 125 students are in Marching Band; other components in the program include Concert and Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, three levels of Jazz Band, Winter Guard and Percussion Studio.
Carlson said the idea for “Music At the Mall” began formulating during a carwash fundraiser last year.
“The student president of bands and I were both kind of lamenting the thought of needing to put down our instruments to pick up sponges,” he said. “He came up with the idea of having live performances for the people waiting for their car to be washed, and it was a hit.”
This time around, all participating students will get to brandish their respective instruments without a single sponge in sight.
“I do think it will help raise awareness that we have some amazing concert bands at Mira Costa, each of which received the highest ratings attainable when we traveled out to Festival this year,” Carlson said.
The donations will go toward the music program’s instrument fund, particularly to purchase bigger instruments that students often cannot afford.
“We are in desperate need of more Bassoons, French Horns, Bass Clarinets and other large instruments that students do not typically start out on when they are younger because the instrument is either too big, too expensive or too difficult,” Carlson explained, noting that students become interested in upgrading to these instruments as they progress through the program.
According to the Band Boosters, the district pays for most of the cost of one full-time music teacher, Carlson, and an instructor for Jazz II. The Band Boosters are left to foot the rest of the bill, which includes sheet music, band equipment, uniforms, registration fees for competitions and festivals—and large, expensive instruments.
The limitations set by the program’s lack of these instruments were evident when the students began rehearsing for the upcoming event last week.
“Many students went out of their way to arrange a piece of music they wanted to play, but that was not available for the set of instruments they wanted to play it with,” Carlson said.
Linda Beck, the Band Boosters’ vice president of fundraising, noted that the student performers will not be taking cash donations on the spot but will distribute envelopes for mail-in or drop-off donations.
