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Garden City Marching Band Achieves Personal Best at Nationals

Lone Long Island representative at USSBA championships in Annapolis, MD.

The Garden City Marching Band had the distinction of being the only high school marching band from Long Island to compete at the United States Scholastic Band Association (USSBA) national championships in Annapolis, MD Nov. 6.

Garden City was one of 21 marching bands competing in Group IV, which featured highly accomplished bands from Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York.

The competition took place at Jack Stephens Field, home of the U.S. Naval Academy football team.

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Garden City, playing three songs from its fall theme – "Dancing With The Gods" (composer Karl Jenkins) scored an 87.538, the highest point total of the season. The score was not far off the school record of 88.8 achieved several years ago. Last year, the Garden City Marching Band's high score was a 73, achieved at the New York State Field Band championships at Syracuse University. 

The marching band's performance capped a terrific fall season for the 82-member band, the largest extracurricular activity group at the high school. Garden City competed in several local events against some of the top marching bands in New York State and improved their score throughout the fall.

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"From the first rehearsal to the last performance, the marching band never deviated from their goal to put out the best show possible," said Brandon Psenicka, marching band director. "All the students showed tremendous growth and self-discipline over the course of the season. I am proud of everyone for what they accomplished."

This year's drum majors are Christine Pando and Lauren Reale. Student directors are Marissa Burdi and Meaghan Leahy. Section leaders are Amanda Ferraro (flutes), Will Chow (clarinets), Kimberly Ryan (horns and saxophones), Robert Pietrzak (trumpets), Matt O'Conor (drum line), Sam McHugh (pit) and Justin Sarfin (low brass). Color guard captions are Michaela Dougherty, Kaitlyn Zwicke and Hayley Giumenta.

The Garden City Marching Band will play at halftime of Saturday's Garden City football playoff game at Hofstra University.

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