Black Knight Band gears up for season under new director
Robbinsville – After a turbulent year, the Black Knight Band is gearing up for its 2021-22 marching season as its camp continues through the month of July.
The band held a leadership camp last week, with this week being devoted to preparing new members of the band and bringing them to a high level of both music and marching.
The band’s 2021 marching show is titled “To Catch a Thief,” and is based off the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name.
After the abrupt departure of its previous director last year, the band is now under the baton of one of its own alumni, Amber Watkins.
“(It’s been) fantastic,” Watkins said. “I’ve had a great turnout. The kids are excited, and they just seem enthusiastic about it. I think they’re just excited about having a regular season. That’s their big thing right now.”
She said that she had been reminding her students that they were still good and that the band was still good.
“They were constantly saying ‘We want the band to be great like it used to be. We want it to be great again,’” Watkins said. “I was like, ‘You know what guys, the band’s always great and you guys were already great.’
“We’re just going to work on getting some more precision and move in a different direction toward some more competition style music stuff.”
She said that the band currently has 38 students, with 42 spots in total. She said she had seen substantial interest in the band since arriving back in Robbinsville on July 9, after a stint teaching music in Grayson County, Va.
“A lot of them are interested in drumline, but right at this moment, there are a lot of people that are nervous to put themselves out there,” Watkins said. “They don’t want to be the first one to play in front everybody. I think when I build that confidence in them they’ll understand, and know that they run band and music in the county.”
She said the ongoing “rookie camp” included many middle school musicians, but that some high school performers were participating as well due to the strangeness of the band’s past few seasons.
“Some of them have never marched before,” Watkins said.
She called the community support her band had received “phenomenal.”
“People have been coming out of the woodwork from churches, restaurants, the Lake Santeetlah community has offered to donate,” Watkins said. “There’s support with food. There’s support with volunteers.
“Everybody is behind this band.”
While Watkins is over the program, Drum Major Aidan Holder will conduct the band on the field and serve as a leader and mentor to his fellow students.
“We had a challenging year last year with having the band director leave mid-season,” said Holder, a 15-year-old sophomore. “I really enjoyed it and I’m really excited about this upcoming season, due to the fact that we’re going to have an actual session, you know, have a show.
“I’m really enthusiastic about what our band can do.”
Holder also said he had been able to hone his craft at the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy held in Charlotte earlier in the summer.
“It was about 13 hours each day, but we learned a lot of stuff, conducting, leadership, the ins and outs of being a drum major,” Aidan said. “I feel, as I said, a little more confidence about being a drum major compared to last year. That year I just kind of got tossed into the fire, if you know what I mean.”