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Hot off the red-booted heels of 10 straight days of performing at the Calgary Stampede, the city’s premier marching band has earned another world championship banner.
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The Calgary Stampede Showband took first place at the 2023 World Association of Marching Show Bands (WAMSB) championship in West Virginia over the weekend — the seventh such achievement for the 140-person ensemble.
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“We’re like a carnival, fair band at the Calgary Stampede. And then we head out on the road to compete with some of the most serious and focused groups in the world,” said program co-ordinator Josh Malate. “We’re putting on essentially a 10-minute, almost Broadway-type production on a football field, competing on the clarity and the emotion that we create in our shows, which is a lot different than hanging out on the rodeo steps playing pop tunes.”
The Showband has been around since 1971, created to be the musical ambassadors of the Stampede. All of its performers are between 16 and 21 years old, and the band plays roughly 200 times a year. After hundreds of hours of rehearsal — much of it outdoors in sweltering heat — band member Marc Laberge said this is the cherry on top of an incredible season for the band.
“It’s been a lot of fun with friends, a crazy good experience down in West Virginia — it’s been great,” said Laberge, the band’s drum major.
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The competition featured bands from across the globe, including groups from Taiwan and France — students got an opportunity to rehearse with a group from Switzerland over the weekend.
“It’s really cool to be able to relate to people who might not even speak the same language, but you do the same thing — you play music, you march on the field,” said Laberge. “It’s cool to see how they do things differently or how, in some ways, you’re actually more similar than you would think.”
Calgary Stampede Showband not done yet
The Showband has two more performances south of the border before it comes home to showcase its new hardware. It’s participating in two Drum Corps International events — the largest stage in marching arts — in New York state and New Hampshire.
“It is where the best groups in the world compete,” said Malate. “We constantly want to have a chance to measure up against them, in addition to competitions like WAMSB, so it will consistently be something we look to attend.”
Laberge said the opportunity to play on the same field as DCI groups — many of which are greatly admired by members of the Showband — is a “dream come true” for some members.
“It’s really cool. Seeing videos of these bands over the years, they are quite an inspiration to a lot of members of the Showband,” he said. “To actually perform and compete on the same field as them, it’s, I think, a great experience for everyone.”
The Showband’s two affiliated youth marching bands also competed in WAMSB this year. The high-school-aged Calgary Stetson Showband took third place, and the Round-Up Band — the only junior high-aged group to make the finals — placed seventh.
mrodriguez@postmedia.com
Twitter: @MichaelRdrguez
