HASTINGS — The Hastings High School Marching Tigers will perform the show “Heroes of Heart and Ice” during the 2025 marching band season this fall.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, the members of the Hastings band were out on the practice field north of Hastings High School prior to sunrise working on their drill for a movement before doing run through of the show.
Band Director Troy Ehmke, in his tenth year in the position, directed the students from up above, addressing any missed marks and giving the students feedback on the music.
Ehmke said that the band this year numbers 101, and is a younger group with 33 freshman this year. The jump up to just over 100 was owed to a small senior class last year and the large group of incoming freshmen.
With so many fresh faces, Ehmke said there has been a lot of on field learning for the young students and he has stressed the importance of everyone show patience for each other as they learn the drill and show.
The 2025 Marching Tigers got their start at their three day minicamp in late June, the group practiced together on their parade, field show music, school fight song and the National Anthem.
Band camp was held later in the summer and was five days of 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. work, with the students continuing to learn the music and the field drill. The band got to enjoy the end of the week with a trip to the Hastings Aquacourt.
On Thursday, the band took to the field and practiced their spots in the formation and then moved on to playing while marching.
Later in the morning, the band practiced entering the field as they would for competition and then played and marched through the first two movements of the show.
The show this year is titled “Heroes of Heart and Ice” and features the Captain America Theme, “Let It Go” from the Disney movie “Frozen,” and “Titan Spirit” the movie, “Remember the Titans.”
The Captain America theme was composed by Alan Silvesti for “Captain America: The First Avenger” motion picture which was released in July 2011.
“Let It Go” is a song from Disney’s 2013 computer-animated feature film Frozen, written by husband-and-wife songwriting team Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
The song was performed in its original show-tune version in the film by American actress and singer Idina Menzel in her vocal role as Queen Elsa.
“Titans Spirit” is a seven-minute instrumental. It has been used on numerous sports telecasts, particularly those on NBC, which has utilized the score during its closing credits for each Olympic Games since 2002.
The show features three different movements, which Ehmke calls an “impactful show” and celebrates, through music, celebrating heroes and those who are dedicated to helping each other.
The Marching Tigers will attend six different parades and competitions during the 2025 season.
The first parade and field competition will be Saturday, Sept. 20, with the UNK Band Day Parade in the morning and the Bearcat Marching Festival, hosted at KHS, in the afternoon.
The band will also march in the Hastings Melody-Round Up parade.
The following weekend, the band will travel on Saturday, Sept. 27 for the Columbus Marching Band Festival.
Turning the calendar over to October, Hastings will travel up Highway 34 to take part in the 83rd annual Harvest of Harmony parade on Oct. 4.
On Oct. 11, the Hastings band members will head east to Lincoln for the 28th annual LINKS Marching Contest at Lincoln High School.
The final competition of the season will be the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association State Marching Contest, on Saturday, Oct. 25. The west festival site will be hosted at KHS.
“Bands compete in an open class event although individual class champions are announced and presented with an award. All participating bands receive a placement award and caption awards are presented for Best Percussion, Best Auxiliary, Best Music, Best Visual and Best Effect,” according to the NSBA website.
Find the time this fall to see the Hastings Marching Tigers perform familiar tunes honoring those heroes both fictional and real.