All eyes will be on the Fair Lawn High School Marching Band & Color Guard this year. And Director of Bands Paul Kafer wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Hypnotize” is the theme for the Cutters’ 2008 season, perhaps the most ambitious one in school history as Mr. Kafer fields the largest ensemble ever: 102 members including a record 25 girls in the Color Guard. Nearly one-third of the students are new to the band.
“We’ve always had a ‘build it and they will come’ mentality,” said Mr. Kafer, who enters his 12th season at the helm of one of the nation’s top marching band programs, finishing in the Top 6 in USSBA Open or Group class in each of the past seven years. “While we may have our work cut out for us in teaching so many new students, as well as having some new staff members, it will be a great learning experience. It also allows us to do a different type of show than what we’ve done in the past.”
“Hypnotize” is a musical and visual journey that portrays the hectic and chaotic life of a man trying to cope with the troubles of his past. The show opens with our tragic figure meeting with his therapist and being hypnotized, where through dozens of musical formations and color guard performances he relives his childhood, love life, work, and finally his breakdown. At the end of the show he is brought back to reality and awoken from his hypnotic state.
It all begins of course with “Band Camp,” an 8-day stretch of 9 hour days in late August followed by a full slate of home-and-away football games and 8 competitions including 4 USSBA championships: the Central Regionals Oct. 19 at The College of New Jersey; the New Jersey State Championships at Giants Stadium on Oct. 25, the Northern State Championships on Nov. 2 at Allentown, PA, and our third consecutive invitation to the United States National Marching Band Championships at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD on Nov. 8.
Both East Rutherford and Annapolis hold special places for the band: Fair Lawn’s best performances have come in Giants Stadium including that magical night in 2005 when we placed 3rd out of 189 high schools at the All-States Championships with a school record score of 97.28 out of a possible 100 points. The band earned the Bronze Medal at the first ever National Championship at Annapolis in 2006 with Percussion claiming its third title and the Color Guard finishing fourth in the country.
“Performing in Giants Stadium and at Nationals are two of the memories these kids will have for the rest of their lives,” said Mr. Kafer. “Kids joining the program know that if they work really, really hard and dedicate themselves to their craft, we’ll provide them with the training and the opportunity to perform at the highest level. For us, it has always been about the performance. That’s what makes a winning program.”
One that enjoys an unparalleled tradition of excellence:
- 7 consecutive seasons as one of the Top 6 USSBA bands in America
- 3 consecutive seasons as the highest scoring band in Bergen County
- 3 time USSBA National Champions, Percussion, 2004-05-06
- 2006 USSBA Group IV National Bronze Medalists
- 2002 USSBA Group IIA All-States Champions
2007 highlights included winning 3 of 4 USSBA competitions including sweeping all captions at the Bergen County Invitational Band Festival; placing 3rd and setting a school scoring record at Regionals; placing 5th at the first-ever Northern States Championships at Giants Stadium with a score of 94.975, the third-highest score in school history and the 19th-highest score posted out of the more than 250 high schools that competed in the USSBA last year; Color Guard winning the County Invitational and setting a school scoring record (96.5) at Northern States, where Percussion posted its second highest mark in school history (97.5).
The Cutters’ spellbinding 2008 show will be topped by their fourth trip in seven years to lead the Dreams Come True Parade in Walt Disney World in January.
Come see for yourself this season, you won’t believe your eyes!