Marching Monti

Dedicated. This is one word I would use to describe Silas Monti, a sophomore. Monti plays the trumpet in the marching band, and shared what inspires him.

“I’ve been in band since 6th grade. I play the trumpet because that’s what my dad played when he was in school so I figured I’d try it as well and I wound up liking it,” said Monti. “Being able to be melodic, and have that different personality. It’s sort of creative and it just interested me.”

Many people don’t realize how time-consuming and challenging being in marching band can be. Marching and playing an instrument in the hot summer days for hours on end is not an ideal summer for most, but Monti believes that putting in the time proves to be worthwhile.

“The time that I don’t really want to be in marching band is during the hot summer days when we’re constantly on the field and constantly marching. I guess what keeps me going is knowing that I’m teaching the freshman how to march and teaching them how to do all of these things. But in the end, during competitions, it’s always fun and I’ll just need to get through those few weeks to make it to the competitions so that I can enjoy them.”

While only a sophomore, Monti still has a couple of year to go until he is a section leader, but Monti explains that even as a sophomore, he has already gained some form of leadership.

“You take on more of a responsibility for teaching the underclassmen how to march and take more responsibility for your section. There’s one section leader and they’re usually a senior, maybe a junior, depending on how it wound up,” explained Monti about how leadership works in marching band.

Monti hopes to pursue marching band after high school, but does not want to pursue it after college.