MHS Red Rebel Marching Band receives $10,000 donation

Maryville High School marching band has received a $10,000 donation from the Susan Phillips Knoll Family Foundation.

Knoll was a graduate of MHS, and the family donated to honor her involvement with the school.

The family has 40 graduates from MHS, 11 of whom were involved in the MHS band.

“Her family had a really strong legacy here,” said Band Booster Communications Lead Sam Jackson.

The money will go toward purchasing new percussion instruments and supporting concession stands, the band’s primary ongoing source of fundraising.

“As far as we know, that’s the largest single donation that the band has ever received,” said Jackson.

Jackson said supporting band operations costs between $75,000 and $100,000 a year.

The donation came just as the band was gearing up for their upcoming school year.

The MHS band, known as the Red Rebel Marching Band, has been hard at work at a two-week-long band camp where they practiced more than 80 hours to learn their half-time show.

On a humid Tuesday morning, with rain threatening to move in, the students formed a circle on the football field and began to warm up. Their exercises included stretches, tests for balance and hand placement for instruments.

Once the warm-up was complete, they started to practice their formation, moving in time to a metronome and their own voices while their band director, Jonathan Leichman, gave instructions from the bleachers via a megaphone.

In the fall, the band will perform at football games, parades and competitions. In the holiday season, they will perform a concert and then continue to perform concerts throughout the spring season.

Some of the students involved in the MHS band reflect the Phillips Knoll family’s legacy and love of music.

For Drum Major Laura Robbins and flutist Zoe Shankland, their involvement in the band was inspired by their parents. Robbins’ mother played for the MHS marching band and Shankland’s mother is a flutist who graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her father sings for the Knoxville Choral Society.

They both credit their time in the band with learning important life lessons.

“It teaches all of our members so much about discipline and hard work. So many doorways are opened with band, such as scholarships and abilities to try out for things like ETSBOA, so like different music camps and things, which otherwise we wouldn’t be able to try out for and it gives us the opportunity to learn more about ourselves too,” said Robbins.

Shankland said her time as the flute section lead has allowed her to develop her leadership skills, not just in management but in how to lead kindly and effectively.

“Band has changed me so much as a person,” she said.

For Mellophone Section Leader Noah Jackson, while both his parents were involved in band, Jackson didn’t necessarily feel like he needed to follow in their footsteps; he just wanted to make music.

He described being in the MHS band as one of the best experiences he has had in his life.

“It’s where I figured out my calling with music,” he said.

Like Robbins and Shankland, he credits the band for teaching him responsibility, leadership skills and people skills.

Jackson, who composes his own music, said his life goal is to be nominated for a Grammy for his original music.

Not every student comes from a legacy household, though. Color Guard Section Leader Ryen Hart, who is going into her fourth year with the band, said her mother suggested she audition after her 8th-grade year, which was entirely online.

She went to the audition without prior experience, made the team, and has been involved ever since. She plans to continue in college.

One thing these students agreed upon was that participating in band allowed them to feel like they belonged to something bigger than themselves.

“It gives you an automatic friend group,” said Hart

Leichman said he tries to instill a sense of teamwork in each student and teach them that they can accomplish great things together.

“What we create together as a group, as a whole, will always outweigh the sum of the parts,” he said.

Shankland and Hart are going into their senior years. Shankland, who wants to study engineering, said that the things she has learned while in the band have complimented her mathematical focus. Hart is looking at Yale and the University of Tennessee as potential schools where she can continue her participation in color guard.

Robbins and Jackson are entering their junior years and are looking forward to continuing their work with the MHS band and spending time with their fellow bandmates.

“I always have somebody to lean on if I need help, and that’s the thing you get most out of band is just the ability to have this amazing community that supports you with everything,” said Robbins.