Weiser’s Proud Sound marching towards a fourth District 3 win

In the midst of halftime performances at home football games this fall, Weiser High School’s Proud Sound marching band has played in competitions every Saturday this month, starting with the Caldwell Marching Band Showcase on Oct. 5. 

 The band followed up this past weekend at the Treasure Valley Festival of Bands at Vallivue High School, Oct. 19, Weiser’s elite marching band program is shooting for a fourth-in-a-row District 3 overall win on the blue turf at Boise State University this Saturday, Oct. 26. The band’s performance time is scheduled for 7:26 p.m. at Albertsons Stadium.

 This year’s drum majors, senior Yahir Valdivia and junior Grant Walker, were on hand at the Oct. 14 monthly Weiser School District trustees meeting, giving the board an overview of the Proud Sound’s success, plus personal testimony of their individual growth through the program.

 Thanking the board for having them, Valdivia said they wanted to talk about “some really good things going on with the Weiser band.”

 Valdivia said he started band in sixth grade after his older brother and a cousin had been in the program, and had decided to continue all the way through high school.

 “It has been one of the best decisions I have made growing up,” he said. “It’s helped me to develop a lot of good things.

 “In middle school, you go along with the basics of the horn, and before you know it you’re ripping cool stuff out of your horn,” he said. “As soon as we got into high school we learned the big thing, marching band. Playing on the move, kind of out of breath, it’s a lot of fun.”

 Valdivia went on to say the WHS marching band has been successful since his freshman year. “Our dynasty of success,” he called it.

 “We won my freshman year, my sophomore year, and last year,” he said. “So, we’ve been successful all three years at D3 competition at Boise State. And, that freshman year was our first competition since the pandemic, because the year before it was canceled. 

 “Right now we’re on track to win our fourth year in a row, which means I haven’t lost any D3,” Valdivia said, as his audience laughed at the humor. “That’s been fun. And not just the marching band is an elite part of the school, the jazz band, we show these big schools like Timberline, Capital what’s up. Weiser can shred. Our concert band also shows some pretty cool stuff. We play a lot of nice symphonies. It’s really cool stuff our band has been up to, and we’ve been successful every year.”

 Walker backed him up saying he had always loved band.

 “I started in fifth grade in Boise,” Walker said. “I moved to Weiser in eighth grade and right when I got to the band program, it was just amazing. I really liked it here. As soon as I got into high school, the marching band and my first D3 competition. We ended up not just winning our division, we won all the captions. We swept everything. 

 “So, this marching band is amazing. I love it here. I didn’t start jazz band until my sophomore year, but right when I got in, I really love jazz band, as well. It’s such a good group. We always play the festivals we go to every year. The fun part of jazz band, you also get to play pep band, go to all of the basketball games and have a lot of fun.”

 Walker talked about the band’s percussion ensemble.

 “They always perform well with our concert band and we always give the judges a nice, elite performance every time we go to festival,” he said. “I really see our band doing well the next few years. We’ve won the last 4 D3s and we’re doing really well right now.”

 In a separate interview, the Proud Sound’s director Jake Fortin described this year’s marching band show to the Signal American late last week. 

 “The marching band show this year is called ‘Rhapsody,’” Fortin said. “It is a combination of two different pieces of music: George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. 

 “There is a legendary clarinet solo in Rhapsody in Blue that is really quite difficult to play,” he went on. “Luckily for us, we have two students who are more than capable of playing it! Both students were playing it so well and working so hard on it that I just decided to let them split it. Having that solo in place really makes for a special beginning to the show that audiences love so far. 

 “We have only had two competitions so far and at our first competition we did a terrific job and placed first in our division,” Fortin said. “We have a competition coming up at Vallivue this weekend (the 19th) and our final competition at Boise State, next Saturday, the 26th, that we should place very well at. We are competing against the likes of Parma, Middleton, and Payette at these upcoming competitions. The kids are awesome and work super hard, I’m really blessed to lead such a group of kids.”

 Both the high school and middle school bands will be performing in concert in the WHS auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 29, beginning at 7 p.m.