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Strike Up the Band!

Students at Carver Elementary enjoying the Titan marching band. Mitch Lehman Photos

On a typical Friday, the only sounds heard on the athletic fields behind Carver Elementary School are laughter, bouncing balls and the occasional adolescent screams of joy. But last Friday was anything but typical.

Enter San Marino High School’s award-winning marching band and color guard, which paid its annual campus visit to entertain and educate the community’s young ‘uns.

The long-standing tradition was started by Musical Director Ben Ubovich during his long tenure at SMHS as a means to recruit elementary school students to join the district’s instrumental music programs that are made now available to students starting in the 5th grade. It’s a convention that Shota Horikawa, the current musical director at SMHS, is more than pleased to continue.

“The visits are a fantastic way to introduce elementary school students to the different instruments that they have available to them as they go through middle school and high school,” Horikawa told The Tribune. “They are also a great way to start exposing students to special programs that we have available such as drumline and color guard, which are typically not offered at the elementary or middle school levels.”

The students received an extra bonus as Christina Chu, a second grade teacher at Carver and 1994 graduate of San Marino High School, is a former drum major, one of just seven females to serve in that capacity in the band’s rich history. Chu was asked to come forward and lead the assemblage in a rousing rendition of the school’s fight song.

“It was great,” said Chu, who flawlessly reprised her former role. “The movements have stayed exactly the same and I love getting out there.”

By the actions of the students and faculty members, the feeling was quite mutual.

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