The Imperial Sound of Auburndale

Some people look at a high school and think of it as something easy, generic, and simply put, an excuse to get out of classes early. There is much bias when it comes to a high school marching band because of the amount of participation and discipline that it requires to be a member of the band. Hours and hours of clinician, private study, memorization, and working out is a fundamental part of what it takes for a musician to maintain the requirement needed to handle the extensive pressure of what it takes to not just perform, but to remain healthy and fully aware of what is going on in the environment.

The Imperial Sound of Auburndale is the name by which identifies the marching band of Auburndale Sr. High School in Auburndale, Florida. With a struggling curriculum and budgets, a need for change and something fresh and new, the patrons of Auburndale Sr. High School called for a search to replace an outstanding band director who was seen as by most that “it can’t get any better than this, can it?” With that thought of most of the people in the city, county, and state, it was unsure that it could get any better. The search began to top the 48 years of work since the program began in the winter of 1947. (Tastic Productions)

Out of no-where, in the summer of 1995, came the answer to the prayers and a massive search to exceed what was highly set as unachievable to max out such outstanding representation and performance by the objectives set by former band director Jimmy Carter. I personally met Jimmy Carter and I can personally say that he is a man that is well known and recognized as being the best and a perfectionist in style and a believer in hard work and discipline with the idea that military training is no different that what a band should have to experience to max out all requirements to maintain fit and healthy so that each individual can exceed their own peak performance each time they play a note, or take a marching step into a formation. Least did anyone expect that we could have inherited such an incredible and outstanding man focused on honor and what an American band is about, and what we represent. This individual’s name is Alexander Kaminsky, also known to the students as “Mr. K.” (Tastic Productions)

Kaminsky became the Imperial Sounds new band director, leader and soon to be, role model. In just two brief years, he would raise the level of achievement to a whole new degree in both music and band performance, but also in academic requirement. From the continuation of musical practice through the chosen pieces for concert band season, the level of expectation for the band would rise because he saw talent, dedication, and potential that he could tap into and push to the end of each students own comprehension of their gifts, which led the band to making school history on Thursday, May 1^st, 1997, in Jacksonville, Florida where for the first time in the ISA’s 52-year history, it would earn straight superior ratings at the Florida Bandmasters Association event. It was a feat never before achieved at this school warranting over the prestigious Otto J. Kraushaar Award. This continued for the next three years that the band earned 3 more awards under the direction of Alexander Kaminsky. (Tastic Productions)

Each year the band brought in clinician from all around. Each piece of music was rewritten, organized, and arranged into music that was not only challenging, but would also fit a marching band style set that can be performed. For example, in 1996, the drum and bugle corp known as Santa Clara Vangaurd chose Auburndale Sr. High School’s Imperial Sound of Auburndale as a home field for the next three years that it performed at the Orange Bowl in Orlando, Florida for the Drum Corps International ™ tour. While they practice on the fields of the field of Bruce Canova Stadium, they would practice on the Dust Bowl field to increase fundamental formation and exercises to execute a show that would bring them into the finals. While using the stadium, they offered private clinician to each section and coordinate its leaders and members into pushing Auburndale’s band members to a new limit and raise the bar for the competitions and marching festivals to come. Also brought in were various cast members who were writers and choreographers for Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, and members of The Magic of Orlando Drum and Bugle Corp. who would soon retire its instruments of their front in percussion section, known as the Pit, to Auburndale. This would mean a drastic change of performance for them and would ensure them new championships at the Crown Jewel Marching Festival in Vero Beach, FL and the Emerald City Marching Festival in St. Augustine, FL.

In 1998, the Imperial Sound of Auburndale was invited to perform its shows from Beethoven in Paris France in the 1999-2000 Millennium Parade through Paris, France. Years to come awards were won and the band grew stronger until the leave of Alex Kaminsky in 2001. It has yet to see such a massive number of participants since what we know as “the Golden Years” of the Imperial Sound and only hopes that a new accomplishment be established again. (Tastic Productions)

Bibliography

Tastic Productions. History. 2009. 10 11 2011 <http://www.auburndaleband.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51&Itemid=59>.