WCHS Percussion Ensemble State Champs For Second Consecutive Year
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Not only are members of the Warsaw Community High School Percussion Ensemble state champs, they’re state champs for the second consecutive year. Warsaw has won the state championship five times, but this is the first time the ensemble won it back-to-back. The Indiana Percussion Association State Finals were Saturday at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis. WCHS won the Open Class Concert division championship with 92.15 points. Union County was second with 91.3 points. Director Mickey Ratliff said he wasn’t sure how well the ensemble would place during its performance. “You can never be sure because you’re dealing with judges with different opinions and who like different aspects of the show,” Ratliff said. “I wasn’t sure. We had been first for the past few weeks leading up to that, but there was no guarantee it would stay that way. Judges award points and take away points for different things. You can’t have control over that or how other teams perform. Another team could perform really well and knock it out of the ballpark.” After it was announced WCHS had placed first, Ratliff was relieved. “Like I said, we had been first place for the last few weeks and that seemed like the way to end the season. Anything else would have been a disappointment,” he said. Winning state two years consecutively had a special meaning for Ratliff. “Previously I mentioned how winning last year inspired me to take some risks with this year’s show that may or may not be received well. It’s gratifying that the kids took to the show and really did well with it,” Ratliff said. “The judges really appreciated it and the audiences appreciated it. It could have gone the other way, and they could have said it was weird and didn’t like it.” The theme of the ensemble’s show this year is “Angels in the Architecture.” It’s also the name of the piece by Frank Ticheli, a composer mostly of concert band literature. Ticheli wrote “Angels” with the intention of representing lightness and darkness. The music has a lot of quick changes that go back and forth from pieces sounding angelic to pieces that sound foreboding and evil. The ensemble starts the song with pieces of a sump pump hose that are cut into 3- and 4-foot lengths. If you spin them around, it gets a pitch that sounds eerie. It’s meant to represent the voices of angels. Students also have crystal wine glasses that they run their fingers over to get certain pitches at the start of the piece to get an ethereal effect. Ratliff attributed a large portion of the show’s success to the 19 students in the ensemble buying into it and selling it. Senior Jana Blackwell said, “I was just really happy (with winning). It felt great. I was kind of getting antsy when they were getting to the top three. I wasn’t sure how we’d end up.” “We’re setting a trend now and everyone’s going to have to live up to this. We’re setting the example,” senior Mikala Shirey said. Senior Zack Jones said what put WCHS over the edge to win was “probably the uniqueness of using the tubes and glasses. And the way it was arranged. It was just a unique show overall.” “Obviously it’s a really big accomplishment,” senior Patrick Kelly stated. “This is the best way we could have ended.” Kelly also was the recipient of one of five IPA scholarships for $1,000. “It was kind of overwhelming on stage,” Kelly answered when asked how he felt about being named a scholarship winner. “There’s really no words to describe it. Kelly plans to attend Indiana University and study music education. The four seniors also talked about how much of an impact Ratliff had on them as their teacher. “He writes awesome music,” Kelly remarked. “For me, in middle school, I played trombone. Then my sophomore year I was in the drum line. He’s taught me to play more expressively. I understand musicality more than in middle school,” Jones said. Shirey said she learned more in high school than middle school. She came to realize more about music under Ratliff and how fun it could be. “Pretty much, band is a home away from home,” Blackwell said. “I feel comfortable here and like I belong. I’m sad it’s over, but it’s been a good three years.”
