There's a friendly rivalry between the Warsaw Community and Goshen high schools' percussion ensembles.
During Concert World Class competition this season, the rivalry showed.At the Norwell Invitational, Warsaw placed first, just ahead of Goshen. At the Winter Guard Invitational Regional in Troy, Mich., Warsaw placed second behind Goshen.
At Warsaw's own invitational, Warsaw placed first again, just ahead of Goshen. Then at the state preliminary competition March 8, Warsaw took second place, behind Greenwood and just ahead of Goshen. At state finals March 15, Warsaw ended up in third, with Goshen second.
"The scores were really close," said WCHS Band Director Mickey Ratliff. Greenwood beat Warsaw just by 1-1/2 points, Goshen beat Warsaw by a half point.
For state finals and being almost at the end of the season, Ratliff said third place may not be what they would like to see happen, but he said it's been a good season. World Finals are left and will be in Dayton, Ohio, April 19-20.
Warsaw Percussion Ensemble's show this year is called "Guitar Guiro." Ratliff said guiro is a Latin hand-held percussion instrument, which isn't used in Warsaw's show. It's a play on words off the video game "Guitar Hero," which Ratliff admitted to playing often.
Part of the music was written by Ratliff, he said. The first two parts are called "Guitar Guiro" and "sort of" based on the progressions and forms of other tunes. The rest is original, Ratliff said, and adapted from other material, but applied to the percussion ensemble.
"Guitar Hero" has some very fast, hard-to-follow music in the game. Ratliff said he wanted to add that same fun and excitement to the music for this season's percussion ensemble show.
The second half of the show, Ratliff said, is based on music by Paco De Lucia. The first song is "Sichia," and the second is "Chiquito." A little drumming feature introduces "Chiquito" and is titled "Chiquito Pets."
For the show this year, Ratliff said he wanted for the students to get to switch instruments to show how well-rounded they are musically and the talents they have. A student might play one instrument at first, then switch to another instrument for another part of the music.
"I really wanted to include that, and I think that really separates us" from the other ensembles, Ratliff said.
Junior Nicholas Utter is a second-year percussion ensemble member. He plays the vibraphone and congas this year.
"I liked the fact that I get to play the congas" and the mallet instruments, Utter said.
The music is really fast and complicated in some parts, he said.
Utter said he was a little disappointed toward the end of competition that they didn't do better, but said he feels they had a lot of great music.
Playing keyboards and synthesizer this year, junior Annalyse Watters said this year was more fun.
"I've been in it for two years," she said. "Last year was fun, a beginning year. This year was more fun. I'm more relaxed, and I can groove with the music."
Watters said she is OK with how well the percussion ensemble did at competition this year.
"I've had as much fun as I could, I love it," she said. "I did my best. I don't care about scores."
Next year, Watters said she plans to be back, get on the floor, win some awards and "represent Warsaw."
Ratliff said Warsaw was well represented when it hosted its own invitational.
"I think it went great," Ratliff said. "It was our second year of hosting a show."
Twenty-two ensembles competed, and Ratliff said it was one of the biggest shows in the state. Of the 22 ensembles that competed, Ratliff said, 15 were state finalists in 2007.
"We're drawing some of the better groups from the state," Ratliff said.
He said other schools' directors and parents told him the Warsaw Invitational was one of the better competitions and well hosted. Ratliff estimated up to 2,000 people were in attendance by the end of the day. Some of the competing schools included Goshen, Norwell, East Noble, Lake Central, Logansport, Twin Lakes, Columbia City, Pioneer, Warsaw and others.
"That's the other thing, too," said Ratliff. "Our show really draws from the north." Instead of driving two to three hours south to an Indianapolis competition, Ratliff said, northern schools have a shorter drive to compete at Warsaw.
