HASTINGS — It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no its not Superman, it’s the Hastings High School Marching Tigers Band that will be performing their “Man of Steel,” show during the 2024 season.
On Thursday, Sept. 12, the members of the Hastings band were found on the practice field north of Hastings High School before the sun rose, working on their drill for the second movement before doing a full run through.
Band Director Troy Ehmke, in his ninth year in the position, was directing the action from up above, ensuring that the students were hitting their marks.
Ehmke said the band is represented by 82 members this year, including the percussion and color guard.
The band is led by a hard-working student leadership team. Ehmke said the group is pushing their students, who are already playing at a higher level at a faster pace this year.
The 2024 Marching Tigers got their start at their minicamp in late June, the group practiced together on their parade, field show music, school fight song and the National Anthem.
Band camp was held later in the summer and was five days of 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. work, with the students continuing to learn the music and the field drill. The diligent work was broken up in the evenings with themed evenings, like a video game night and bowling night at the end of the week.
On Thursday, the band took to the field and practiced their spots in the formation and then moved on to playing while marching.
Later in the morning, the band practiced entering the field as they would for competition and then played and marched through the first two movements of the show.
The show is titled “Man of Steel,” and is based on the music of the 2013 motion picture of the same name, composed by Hans Zimmer.
Popular reception to the score was positive and the album rose to number four on iTunes during the first week of its release.
Man of Steel was a 2013 superhero film that was a reboot of the Superman film series and depicted the character’s origin story. It starred Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman. It was the ninth highest grossing film of 2013.
“Hans Zimmer has emerged as one of the most important film composers of our time, and this epic soundtrack is one of his best. With a large number of drum sounds in the score, this show is a natural for spectacular marching band performances,” per the Alfred Music website.
The show features three different movements. The first opens with the low brass and drumline before being joined by the full band.
The second movement is more melodic and features more soaring melodies. The third movement is the triumphant finish to the musical piece.
The Marching Tigers will attend four different competitions and several parades this 2024 season.
The first parade and field competition will be Saturday, Sept. 21, with the UNK Band Day Parade in the morning and the Bearcat Marching Festival, hosted at KHS, in the afternoon.
The band will also march in the Hastings Melody-Round Up parade.
The following weekend, the band will travel on Saturday, Sept. 28 for the Columbus Marching Band Festival.
Turning the calendar over to October, Hastings will travel up Highway 34 to take part in the 82nd annual Harvest of Harmony parade on Oct. 5.
On Oct. 12, the Hastings band members will head east to Lincoln for the 27th annual LINKS Marching Contest at Lincoln High School.
The final competition of the season will be the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association State Marching Contest, on Saturday, Oct. 26. The west festival site will be hosted at KHS.
“Bands compete in an open class event although individual class champions are announced and presented with an award. All participating bands receive a placement award and caption awards are presented for Best Percussion, Best Auxiliary, Best Music, Best Visual and Best Effect,” according to the NSBA website.
Come view the Hastings Marching Tigers this fall season as they put on their own superhuman show.
