The Calgary Stampede Showband and Calgary Stetson Show Band have set the bar pretty high for marching bands, winning multiple awards at recent international competitions.
The Calgary Stampede Showband took home first place at the World Association of Marching Show Bands Championships in Braganca Paulista, Brazil that was held from July 30 – Aug. 3.
This was their third consecutive win at the championships and they are the only marching band to win three years in a row. It is also their fifth championship title, something that no other marching band in the world has done. They won three of their five championships in Calgary in 1996, 2000, 2012, and last year’s title was won in Chiba, Japan.
Three Cochrane residents went with the Showband to Brazil – drum major Becky Johnston, trumpet player Chris Berner and saxophone player Evan Chorney.
The Calgary Stetson Show Band took home second place in the field show competition, first in the parade competition and third place in the drum battle.
Three of the Calgary Stetson Show Band members attend Bow Valley High School in Cochrane – Curtis Gammon, Brian Goerzen and Brittney Lekic.
Sixteen-year-old Lekic has been with the Stetson Show Band for one year and is in the front ensemble.
“It was a once-in-lifetime thing and I would definitely go back,” she said of her trip to Brazil.
Lekic said the band was really excited to see their scores in the field show competition in both preliminaries and the final results. She said the highest score the Stetson’s had ever received was around 88, but they got a score of 92.4 for the field show, the highest the band has ever achieved.
Lekic said she auditioned for the Calgary Stampede Showband, would be joining them next year and couldn’t be happier.
