New Show, New Drum Majors

By: Tara Khazaeizadeh

As the new school year begins, two new drum majors are crowned in the Redwood Marching Band, greeted with the passed-down task of conducting the band as they tackle their new show “Mayura” this year.

With the new 2024-25 school year blossoming, the Redwood band and color guard have two new drum majors in place to carry them to success.

The band program at Redwood continues to thrive as Jazrine Nieto, ‘25, is head drum major with Mathew Topete, ‘26, as her assistant, joining her side.

When asked how she feels about her new title, Nieto says, “It’s something fun, it’s a bigger responsibility, and the practices may be tiring, but I enjoy it.”

Another thing that sparked the admiration of drum major for Nieto was “encouraging people to be out there,” and Mr. Ray “counting on her to know what she’s doing when he puts [her] in charge.”

Among three other contestants, Nieto was the only female in the audition process.

During the two-day audition process, students first had an interview. On the second day, they were tested on “sayings, and who had the louder voice, who could get people’s attention and had more authority.”

Leading up to the audition, Nieto claims that although not as much physical labor, “mentally [she] had to prepare of what they were going to tell you.”

Before the audition, students were given their tasks, and with a day to prepare they had their time to practice and be ready for the testing.

On preparation day, students were finally “[given] the instructions, and also assigned [them] an essay regarding why they think they should be drum major.” Nieto says, “the essay was very stressful, but I got it done.”

Although assigned multiple new tasks, Nieto says, “I’m good at managing things with the schedule I have.”

With Nieto also being on the Varsity Girls Wrestling team, she says, “It definitely hasn’t hit me yet, but I feel as though once the season starts I’ll be okay and fall into the hang of things.”

Topete, being one of the few Junior drum majors in the Redwood Band, has earned his title of Assistant drum major for the 2024-25 school year.

Given this rare title, Topete says its, “exciting, along with heavy responsibility, and as a junior assistant drum major he needs to step up more.”

When asked if this was a title he had been wanting for a while, Topete says, “Yes, this is something I have wanted since freshman year.”

During the first rally of the year, Topete labeled it as “chaotic,” with the dancers and band students uncertain of where to go, however, it was resolved eventually.

Looking forward, Topete sees the year going by “smoothly, ready for the upcoming competitions against the Clovis High Schools.”

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