Quince Orchard’s Drum Line Wins Best Percussion at State Marching Band Championships

The Quince Orchard High School marching band won Best Percussion in the Show Band class at the Maryland Marching Band Association (MMBA) state championships at Towson University on Saturday, Nov. 7.

Quince Orchard also placed second overall in the Show Band class with a score of 79.15, behind Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts (79.9) and ahead of Kent County High School (74.75), according to the MMBA’s published scores. Patapsco won the Show Band class’s color guard, visual and music awards, the MMBA results show.

Quince Orchard’s drum line scored 7.35 in the percussion caption, and the next-highest percussion score in the Show Band class was 7.10, according to percussion instructor Daniel Wilson. The MMBA’s online scores page, as of Nov. 9, listed each class’s caption award winners and total scores but not caption scores.

The Quince Orchard drum line has six members, Daniel Wilson said. Three of the six drummers are returning members in their second or third year in the program, and the other three are brand new to percussion, according to Wilson.

Daniel Wilson and Nick Wright are the Quince Orchard band’s percussion instructors, Wilson said. Peter Ariano, Quince Orchard’s director of bands, directs the QO Marching Cougars, and Robyn Kleiner-Vilgos, the school’s director of choirs, is the marching band’s assistant director, according to the school’s music faculty page and band department site.

Two weeks before the state championships, Quince Orchard won the Show Band class at the MMBA’s Western Regional at Linganore on Oct. 24 with a score of 79.8, a tenth of a point ahead of Patapsco’s 79.7, according to the MMBA’s scores.

Watch the band

Moderately MOCO filmed the band twice this fall: its “Thriller” performance on Oct. 29 and the marching band and color guard’s senior night halftime show on Oct. 30. The senior night video is also on Facebook and Instagram.

Other Montgomery County bands at states

Four other Montgomery County public high school bands placed at the Nov. 7 state championships, according to the MMBA’s scores:

• Thomas S. Wootton won the Open-Small class with a score of 93.6 and took all five caption awards in its class: color guard, percussion, visual performance, music performance and overall effect.
• Col. Zadok Magruder placed 4th of 11 bands in the 2A class with 85.825.
• Rockville placed 7th of 10 in the 4A class with 82.155.
• Montgomery Blair placed 6th of 8 in the 1A class with 80.23.

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