Black Knights Percussion Make WGI Finals In Dayton - End Season on High Note! | Stamford High Black Knights Marching Band

The Black Knights Percussion Line Successfully advanced through two seminfinal rounds to compete in the WGI Scholastic A Percussion Finals - taking 8th place in the country!

Band Director Hope Bagley tells the full story...

On Tuesday night, April 17, Stamford Winter Percussion departed for a 12-hour bus ride to Dayton, Ohio for the WGI Percussion World Championships. After a long trip, lots of rehearsal time, and checking into the WGI host hotel, Stamford scored 88.60 in the preliminary round at the University of Dayton arena on Thursday 4/19. This put them 4th in their first round of 12 groups. They performed in semifinals later that evening, scoring 87.95. The ensemble waited in suspense to see if they made the cut for the top 12 lines out of the 20 in their round. Around 10:30pm, program director Chris Perna informed the students that they made it into the finals round, a first for Stamford Winter Percussion.

The students returned to the hotel, elated and ready to step it up. They rehearsed Friday morning and performed their last show in Dayton at the Nutter Center, scoring an 89.95. The band parents then surprised the students with a celebratory tailgate party in the Nutter Center parking lot, serving pizza, cake, and sparkling apple cider to toast a successful season and wonderful trip to Dayton. The students in the line presented Chris Perna with a plaque, engraved with his name, a black Knight, and "Thank you for making us the best we can be. Anything that's worth doing is worth doing well." Chris then joined the kids for a game of touch football in the parking lot, while other staff and parents played frisbee and listened to music. The weather was gorgeous for the duration of the trip, and the Friday night party before the awards ceremony was a great way to end the performance time for Stamford.

"It was probably one of the most amazing experiences ever," said Marie Wicht, after getting out her many tears of joy. "I'm glad that we made finals my senior year when I was Pit Captain, and to know that all the hours we've spent over the past four years and everything we've been through has finally paid off. It was a really rewarding experience."

Later that night, after assembling in an Olympic retreat with other ensembles in the Concert and A classes, Stamford was awarded with a plaque for 8th place in WGI Championships. From 48 lines, Stamford moved from top 20 to top 12, and finally to 8th place. This is a victory for Winter Percussion, the staff - Chris Perna, Matthew Bauer and Chase Bronstein, the SHS BPAI and the Stamford High School Music Department. The students achieved a new level of musicianship after putting in hundreds of hours of practice. They had a talented and dedicated staff who wrote, arranged and rehearsed this show down to the smallest details. Winter Percussion has reached new heights, and delivered a positive message to the community. They left Stamford hoping just to make it past the preliminary round in PSA Class. They left Dayton ranked 8th in the country. When asked for a message to send to incoming members, senior tenors player Eric Schneider said "Do it because you love it."