by Merriah Dubois
Going on six years now, the Minarets Showband continues to go strong under the direction of music teacher Brett Moglia, who has many years of experience and knowledge to simulate a functioning band here at Minarets for the students.The local community is already familiar with many of the band's previous performances, some of which can be found online. Though things have changed drastically for the group due to Covid-19, the principles remain the same. Students are still taught to collaborate, learning how to set a stage to perform for a live audience, and other similar skills.
The showband was a large success last year, and this year is seeing a few returning members like sophomore Keegan Atkinson, one of the youngest guitarists the band has had, and senior vocalist Taylyr Moglia. This year's band also welcomes senior Ryan Hough, freshman Trace Hartman, junior Peter Emerson, sophomore Julian Ramirez, sophomore Danny Saenz, junior Alison Partin, freshman Sawyer Encinas, junior Austin Warren, sophomore Dawn Garcia, and senior Merriah DuBois-Foss.
In normal circumstances, the band would begin performances around this time, but because of a lack of resources have delayed plans. There have been a lot of unknowns to determine when the band can rehearse "Hopefully, [we will have] a show at the end of the year like we usually would, perhaps online if not on campus to really energize the community," said Moglia. "Everything has been on hold at the moment trying to organize cohorts and get kids on campus like pod classes that have been held by other teachers."
"These things take lots of time to organize and arrange to put things together for the showband," Moglia added. The showband is considered the pinnacle of all the other music performance courses at Minarets. Moglia also mentioned, "It’s challenging not to have the students be together but, the students know the expectations needed of them from previous years...we make do with what we can with meeting online and collaborating on Google Documents as they have had.”
Despite the obstacles, the Minarets Showband has always been in high demand and will continue to provide entertainment to the community as best they can with a great list of chosen songs to play.