Youngstown students honing skills at summer band camp

YOUNGSTOWN

“Band, ten-hut!” shouts Shawn Marko, the new director of instrumental music for Youngstown City Schools.

“One, two!” the young musicians call back.

“Start the drum roll,” Marko directs.

NaQuaisia Redd, 16, a sophomore at East High School, obliges, striking her sticks on the snare drum. Students in eighth through 12th grade from throughout the district are participating in the summer band camp at the Chaney Campus through this week and next, preparing for the marching band season.

Jah-Nice Berry, 16, a junior at Youngstown Early College, joins in, crashing the cymbals, and Joe McGraw, 14, an eighth-grader at East High School, pounds the bass drum.

About 30 students are involved so far, but Marko, who previously taught at Stambaugh Charter Academy and the Mathews and Warren city school districts, hopes more students sign up as the school year progresses.

“There was a really nice sound,” he tells them.

Marko switches from trumpet to flute to baritone as he leads the students through rehearsals of “The East High School Alma Mater,” “Soul Finger” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

He moves from percussion to woodwind and on to brass, working through more-challenging parts of the music with them.

“This is called rehearsal,” he encourages. “You should be proud of yourselves that you’re willing to rehearse.”

Read more about the camp in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.