Arts Smarts
Band- Mr. Colón is the current band director, and was hired last year after the previous director Mr. McGuffin retired. Mr. Colón has spent his time at Ridgeview trying to revitalize the band program and make it the best in the state. Some of his efforts include the re-introduction of the jazz band, which plays big band classics and jazz standards along with pop, rock, and funk tunes. He also plans on introducing more complicated and sophisticated music into the concert band’s repertoire. There will also be several smaller ensembles within the band performing separate music. His most recent changes include the introduction of a highly competitive marching show and a new marching staff. The show is titled The Fall of the Titans and includes a flute solo played by Rebekah Latham, a flugelhorn solo by Jake McGee, and a final battle between drum majors Jake McGee as Zeus and Kyle Cohen as Kronos. The marching staff includes Steven Bright, who works with the band on marching and general effects; James Rivera, who works with the Drum Line and Front Ensemble on music; and Cassie Margeson, who instructs the Color Guard on marching and flag work. The band will perform their show every Friday at the football games and at several different Saturday competitions as well.
Highlighting the Arts
By; AJ Stair
Chorus- The chorus program at Ridgeview High School remains as strong as ever as they begin to make their yearly preparations. One indicator of the success of the Ridgeview chorus program is their trip to Biltmore every year, which is in November this year. Every year choirs are invited to sing Christmas Carols at the house and our chorus program has participated over several consecutive years. The house is the largest in the country and has 178,926 square feet of floor space, which is just over four acres. The estate itself is 8,000 acres and it is a very popular tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina. Recent performances at Biltmore include the annual Biltmore Concert series, which this summer included performances by ZZ Top, Steely Dan, and Three Dog Night. The chorus also auditions to sing in the Disney Parks at Christmastime every year. Many schools audition every year to sing in one of the many shows that are put on several times a day, which rotate several choirs made up of 120-150 singers. The choirs also get to sing with Disney’s Voices of Liberty.
Theatre- The theatre program will be putting on two productions this year: a spring musical, which is going to be Beauty and the Beast, and the comedy You Can’t Take It with You. The spring musical hasn’t been cast yet, but auditions for the comedy have concluded and preparations are underway. The two lead roles are Alice, who is being played by freshman Kara Parham; and Tony Kirby, who is being played by senior Chris Giles. The comedy is about the interaction between Tony Kirby’s conservative family and Alice’s more eccentric family. The two families meet and Tony’s family is exposed to the somewhat outlandish antics of the other family.
Art- Among the other various honor societies at Ridgeview is the National Art Honor Society, which was founded in 1978 and currently includes over 46,000 outstanding high school artists. The pictures in the article include several of the projects from Mr. Nesi’s AP art students.
Musical Athletes
by Kyle Cohen
The Ridgeview Panther Marching Band is off to an earth-shaking new start this year with their competition show entitled "The Fall of The Titans." This is an exciting concept show following the Greek mythological story of the titan Kronos' rise to power, followed by his destruction at the hands of Zeus, as Zeus is named king of the gods. The band can be seen at any pep rally or football game, trumpeting our school spirit and entertaining the crowd. The band also has many competitions during October and November where they compete against the bands from other local high schools. This type of event can only be categorized as musical athletics, as the band members proudly march, run, and sometimes even dance while playing their instruments for a ten-minute show, not to mention those long hours of practice each week.
Come show some school spirit and support these hardworking and talented musicians in the band at football games and competitions!
Also exciting for the music department at Ridgeview High School is the purchase of completely new uniforms for the marching band. The old ones were from 1994! In addition, we have an official 7th period Jazz Ensemble class, so look forward to some mighty fine music in coming months, as well as the beginning of symphonic band once marching band season has concluded. Hoorah!