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Leon Steel Band brings home the festival gold
by Kathleen Laufenberg, Tallahassee Democrat Staff
Writer, May 20, 2008
It's official: Leon High School's steel band is good .
So good, its members recently brought home a grand prize
and some serious bragging rights from the Virginia Beach
Arts Festival steel-band competition.
"It's the best and the biggest event of its kind in the
country," said David Knapp, the band's proud leader and
teacher.
"It means we're the best band east of the Mississippi."
About 18 teens in the school's Canboulay band — the more
advanced of the school's two steel bands — competed
against about 20 other bands in Virginia earlier this
month. The competition included various school steel
bands as well as some community bands. Ready to show off
their skills, the Leon steel band offered up an
impressively mixed bag of music, including "Seasons of
Love" from the musical "Rent," the classical "Danse
Bacchanale" from the opera "Samson et Delila," and the
Trinidadian tune "The Challenge is Minor."
The four-day trip cost about $10,000, Knapp said, and
was paid for mostly by the students who went. About
$2,000 of the trip's expense was covered by the proceeds
from the steel band's fund-raiser dinner in April. The
rest of the money raised by the band's dinner
fund-raiser — the event netted about $7,250 — is being
used to buy three new steel drums for the band, to
replace three old ones.
The Leon students not only performed well at the
Virginia festival, they had a blast, too.
"The best thing about the competition was playing on
stage — it was awesome!" said Derek Jones, a 16-year-old
tenor pan player.
"I really liked dancing to the other bands and just
enjoying myself. It was really cool."
Derek's mother, Caroline Jones, was impressed by the
band's appearance.
"They all looked really spiffy because they were all
matching," she said.
The band dressed in identical red tops and pants, and
everyone applied a smear of black face paint under one
eye to signify that they were ready to win the battle of
the steel bands.
"We all went in there with a positive attitude," Derek
said.
Still, when the festival's grand champions were
announced, he said, "I was really surprised."
Band members reacted to their big win with "an explosion
of cheer," Knapp said. "It was uproarious." |
