If you walked around Oakview during winter this year, you might have heard drum beats and melodies echoing around the building. If you took a stroll around the food court, you might have seen a group of high school and college kids marching up and down the tiles near an old hot dog stand. What is this new beat in the heart of Oakview Mall?
Three Millard South band members, junior Magnolia Moriarty, freshman Harlie Schulte, and junior Zach Schilmoeller had the opportunity to perform in Spark Percussion, the only independent indoor percussion group in the Omaha area. Indoor percussion, an extension of marching band, consists purely of percussion instruments. In the drumline – snares, tenors, basses, and crash cymbals, and in the front ensemble – marimbas, vibraphones, bells, drum set, electric piano, and other accessory percussion instruments.
Despite the general popularity of the sport in the music community, there hasn’t been an independent indoor percussion ensemble in the Omaha area since the group “Railmen” had their last season years ago. Members of the Railmen staff were interested in creating another independent group.
Alex Albertson, Director of Spark Percussion, wrote in an email interview, “We earned high placements at WGI events and helped inspire a number of our performers to continue earning spots with elite-level ensembles across the nation. Seeing these positive results truly convinced us that we needed to bring an ensemble back to the area.”
And so they did. Issues like funding and rehearsal spaces soon arrived. Albertson runs Maple Music Studios out of Oakview Mall, and it just so happened that the mall has a few open spaces just big enough for a small percussion ensemble to rehearse.
“We use some of the larger spaces to accommodate drill learning, including an old Eddie Bauer, Buckle, and the cafeteria space in front of JCPenney. It is unorthodox, but I’m confident that it will work pretty well in the end,” Albertson said.
Of course, rehearsing inside a mall food court had its issues. Especially when the actual performances were done in a gym.
The rehearsal space was awkwardly shaped, which led to minor issues in spacing and footwork. These issues were removed with dedication and practice, as well as a good amount of trial and error.
“It was nerve wracking because you would have random people walking by and watching you practice. It was like you had to be your best all of the time which was a bit tiring,” Schulte said.
The group’s show this year is titled “Shine.”
“It is in four movements that explore the various meanings of the word, including a sunset, shining on the dance floor, moonlight, and a sunrise,” Albertson said.
“I wrote it to be challenging for our members, but enjoyable to play. It is meant to truly see how much we can accomplish with the rehearsal structure we have available,” he said.
The idea of seeing what we could accomplish in the spaces they had and the time frame available extended to the whole season. Spark Percussion did not perform in competition this year, only exhibition. The goal of this season was to see if this idea was possible; the proof of concept exceeded expectations by a mile.
Next year, Spark Percussion will perform again.
“The plan for next season is to travel to a WGI (Winter Guard International) regional – usually held in Omaha, Denver, Kentucky, or St Louis – and compete there. We will also aim to compete at the annual WGI World Championships held in Dayton, OH. There are more than 100 ensembles that gather at this event and the atmosphere is incredible,” Albertson said.
When asked to reflect on the season as a whole, Harlie Schulte said, “By the end we had all of our music learned, our drill down and we all had a lot of fun.”
