Contributed Photo
Senior Joe Cortez testing out the quads.
ANSONIA – Play like champions.
That’s the sign that is hanging in the corner of the instrumental music room in Ansonia High School, where music teacher Maria Tangredi preps the band for home football games and for the Winter and Spring Concerts in the auditorium.
Last month, it was a room filled with many shiny new percussion instruments from Gerry’s Music Shop in Massachusetts, a regional distributor for Pearl Drums.
The $21,000 price tag on the new instruments was covered by three sources: Money from nearly 80 donors in the May 2019 Great Give campaign; a grant of $10,000 from the Katharine Matthies Foundation; and a portion of the annual VFW endowment to the AHS Band.
A total of 13 drums, carriers and covers, and two concert instruments – a marimba and vibraphone – were purchased.
Gerry’s delivered the new equipment to AHS on Oct. 18, with a bit of fanfare from the senior percussion students and Band President Idalisse Martinez. Ms. Tangredi said Jim Provost of Gerry’s Music Shop said “he’d never seen kids so excited about new instruments, and that he could tell they are good kids.”
Contributed Photo
Snare drummers Gabriel Magarin, Jayden Esquilin and Alann Ferreira.
Contributed Photo
Senior Idalisse Martinez on the trumpet with the percussionists in the background.
“Everyone is really excited,” Idalisse said Friday afternoon, as the band held their final rehearsal before the Ansonia-Derby home football game at Nolan Field. “This has changed everything for us.”
There are 38 members of the AHS band, a slight increase from last year. Ms. Tangredi said the level of commitment from the band members has increased, due largely to the leadership that the senior members exhibit on a daily basis. “I can’t think of better role models than this group.” She added that several students play more than one instrument, and they can now show those talents because there is enough percussion equipment.
Idalisse said the new sound that comes out of the new drums is a “9 out of 10,” compared to what came out of the old instruments, which she assigned a 4 out of 10. “It’s not that I was embarrassed of our performances in the past. It’s that we weren’t able to show who we are,” she said. “Now, it’s game on.”
And when Thanksgiving rolls around and Ansonia plays Naugatuck, Idalisse said they will be ready with their 38 members playing as loud as Naugatuck Band’s 98 members.
“We’re a family,” she said of the AHS band. “And now we’re going to be heard.”
