In 2014, the Marching Redhawks show was titled “The Gift.” In 2015, it was “No One Shall Sleep.” In 2016, “Red.” But next year’s season will bring a new style of music for the musicians in the 2017 Marching Redhawks.

“The working title for this year’s show is called ‘Amour,’ the French derivative of love,” Brandon Estes, head director of the Marching Redhawks, said. “It tells a love story using contrasting music that gives contrasting moods. A love story is not always puppies and rainbows and flowers. With any good love story, there’s always conflict; there’s always some calm before the storm. Things are happy, then things usually go dark or sad and usually on the back end we come out and things are great again.”

Junior drum major Maria Rottersman has been participating in the Marching Redhawks since the 2014 season.

“[Amour] features selections from Palovtsian Dances 3 and 8 from ‘Prince Igor’ by Borodin, ‘La vie en rose’ by Edith Piaf and ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ by Sartori,” Rottersman said. “This is a special show for me. The title of our show reflects the passion I feel for this band.”

Junior Rashmi Kumar, who is a flute section leader for the 2017 season, is also looking forward to the new challenges that this show will bring.

“During orientation, I heard a pretty crazy-sounding woodwind feature,” Kumar said. “I think it’ll be quite the fun challenge to work on it myself and work with the other flutes to make it as flawless as possible. We’ve done it in the past and we can definitely do it again, hopefully even better this year.”

There are high school marching bands that are known for playing a certain genre of music, but Central’s Marching Redhawks get to explore a variety of music styles each season.

“You might find a school that typically does a jazz show or a classical music show,” Estes said. “We do something different every year. We want to give a them different experience each year. We want them to have new musical journeys.”

There are a few factors that co-directors Dan Romano and Estes must take into consideration when brainstorming and then deciding the show for the next season. They must think of a show that is suitable for the students, challenging but not too challenging and one that the audience will enjoy.

According to Estes, the current enrollment for the 2017 season is slightly above 100 participants.

“Before I joined [the Marching Redhawks], I didn’t have a lot of interest and didn’t plan on continuing for more than a year,” Rottersman said. “But when I got to know my peers in band, I knew this was my home. I am so grateful that now, three years later, I am still a part of this organization, and that Emily [Gray] and I get to serve the band as co-drum majors.”

Kumar agrees with Rottersman and says that being a part of the Marching Redhawks has been a really special experience.

“Some of my most favorite memories have been with the Marching Redhawks,” Kumar said. “Marching band is so much more than just marching down the streets during parades. All our efforts go into creating a show that we are all proud of in the end and will remember forever.

Estes, along with the design team and the music arrangers, is working hard to make this show a success.

“Each show is unique, which means different challenges or different opportunities for growth or learning that the students get,” Estes said. “I don’t know exactly what I’m hoping to get out of it other than the students to have an enjoyable show and have something they can walk away from feeling positive and rewarding about.”