November 2020 | Vol. 17 Iss. 11
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Brighton Marching Band begins program right in step By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com
I
t hasn’t been an easy year to start a marching band—director Mikala Mortensen will admit—but the Brighton High Marching Band has been resilient and just snagged second place in 5A at their first-ever competition, the Bridgerland Invitational. “They have worked so hard and fought through all of the crazy that comes with being a first-year band and starting a band through a pandemic,” Mortensen shared with the Brighton community on Facebook. “Words can’t express the gratitude I feel to stand in front of them every day and the pride I felt during their performance today.” The marching band competition, which was held at Mountain Crest High in Hyrum instead of its normal venue of Utah State University, had different guidelines, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of getting to spend the day watching other bands, the Brighton musicians, who were the first ones to perform, were told to immediately exit afterward to reduce the chance of spreading the disease. Mortensen and others had plans to watch a livestream of the competition on the bus ride home. The road to be ready to compete during the pandemic has been bumpy. While marching band follows the Utah High School Activities Association’s guidelines, the 60 marching band members have their temperatures taken daily and complete
Brighton High Marching Band perform in their first competition, where they took second place. (Screenshot)
health checks, and if the group has three cases, then they need to be quarantined— something students already are familiar with as Brighton High moved to online for two weeks with reporting 28 cases in late September.
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for their first competition, dedicating more than 1,000 hours, including 60 hours alone one week of band camp. However, their parade band season was canceled in light of COVID-19. And the
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