{"id":56727,"date":"2013-10-15T00:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T06:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mchs-marching-band-off-to-strong-start\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:56:10","slug":"mchs-marching-band-off-to-strong-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mchs-marching-band-off-to-strong-start\/","title":{"rendered":"MCHS Marching Band off to strong start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Montezuma-Cortez High School band performs at halftime of the Panther football game. The band won first place in their division at the Colorado West Marching Band Festival.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Musicians have come, musicians have gone, but over the years, the Montezuma-Cortez High School marching band has remained consistently strong.<\/p>\n

Looking to continue its long-standing tradition of excellence, the band kicked off its 2013 season in style, winning first place in the field show competition at the Colorado West Marching Festival on Saturday, Oct. 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I thought we did great,\u201d said longtime band director Rodney Ritthaler. \u201cWhere we started the year compared to where we are now, we have made leaps and bounds. We have made a lot of improvement, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s show, which is titled \u201cAmerican Sketches,\u201d features three pieces of music by American composers.<\/p>\n

The first piece, \u201cChorale and Shaker Dance,\u201d was composed by John Zdechlik, and catches the ear with elements of Celtic music.<\/p>\n

The second piece, titled \u201cAshokan Farewell,\u201d was written by Jay Ungar, and was originally intended to be played on fiddles.<\/p>\n

The final piece of the show, which many may know from the movie \u201cThe Red Pony,\u201d is titled Morning on the Ranch,\u201d written by Aaron Copland.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have to say that the mood of the show is dance,\u201d explained Ritthaler. \u201cYou\u2019ll see a lot of that in the show. We have body movements, and the color guard also interprets the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoping to build on their early-season success, the M-CHS marching band will next compete at the Colorado Band Association Regionals on Thursday, Oct. 17, in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll try to improve our score,\u201d said Ritthaler. \u201cOur goal is to keep getting better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly a fine goal and if the first show of the year was any indication, the 2013 marching season promises to be a good one for the MCHS marching band.<\/p>\n

imaclaren@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panthers take first place at festival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[13,36,559],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-music"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56727"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62662,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56727\/revisions\/62662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56727"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}