At around 2:10 PM on March 4th, 2023, Mt. Vernon’s Indoor Percussion group competed at Franklin Community High School.

They started at 8:00 AM, practicing until 9:00 AM where they loaded up equipment into the trailers, ate, put on makeup, did their hair, and left for Franklin Community High School. Once they got there, they unloaded the equipment, warmed up, and then performed parts one and two of their show, “Red Planet.” “Red Planet” is a percussion ensemble piece composed by Kevin Shah and arranged by Mt. Vernon’s Indoor Percussion director, Marissa Turney. Other assistant directors of Mt. Vernon’s Indoor Percussion program include Micheal Ahearn, Jack Doerges, and Jaclyn Nason.

At about 4:00 PM awards for the competition were announced, and there were thirteen bands in Scholastic Class A including Mt. Vernon. Mt. Vernon’s Indoor Percussion program, represented onstage by senior Erin Ballinger and captains Daniel Barnes and Hannah Elstro, won by a margin of a few points; this is a very large gap in musical scoring, as often a tenth of a point will be the deciding factor in placement. 

Mt. Vernon’s Indoor Percussion will be competing at Pendleton High School on March 11th, where they will hopefully perform part three, the final part of their show, as well. This will be the last show of theirs before the Indoor Percussion Preliminaries and Finals, held on March 18th and April 1st respectively.