The Scarlet Regiment is the most prominent piece of the Balers’ extensive music program

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Hollister High School’s marching band, the Scarlet Regiment, is perhaps the most visible manifestation of the Balers’ music program, having performed at six home football games, six local parades, and five competitions throughout California in 2024. But it’s only one of the many bands at the school, including beginning, intermediate and advanced bands, a Winter Percussion Ensemble, a Winter Guard and, for the first time this year, a jazz band.

“We’ve been trying to get the jazz band together for a couple of years,” said Band Director Joseph Fortino. “They play some well-known pieces, and there are places for students to improvise and make up things. It’s been cool to get that band going.”

In its final performance of the year, the jazz band, symphonic band and wind ensemble are presenting a free winter concert, “A Cold Winter Sky,” at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17 at the campus auditorium. The program features classics like Gustav Holst’s “Mars,” Larry Clark’s “Crystal Moon,” and Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” The concert will end with “Mullenium” by Gerry Mulligan, featuring Jared Provencio, who won a place in the All-State Band. 

Fortino has led the program for 12 years. A graduate of San Jose State, he taught at John E. Steinbeck Elementary School before coming to Hollister High. Proficient on the saxophone, he now teaches his students the fundamentals of percussion, brass, woodwinds and other instruments.

“When I first got there,” he said, “no matter how many students were in the band, they were always in one class together. I was allowed to split the bands, allowing us to teach instruments and performance at several levels and give more targeted instruction.”

This has allowed Fortino to have bands playing at different skill levels,  including a beginner’s band, which he said is not something you see in most high schools. 

“Most schools operate off incoming seventh- and eighth-graders who have been in a band before,” he said. “They don’t start kids off at scratch. But we have a growing beginning band of students who just want a chance to join in.”

The highest-profile group is the marching band, the Scarlet Regiment, which meets after school starting in August. It is made up of members of the advanced and intermediate bands and accompanied by a color guard. The band is active until Thanksgiving break.

“We have the wind section,” Fortino said. “Primarily, their job is melody and harmony. Then we have the drum group in two parts: the drumline, which keeps us together, and the pit percussion, with instruments you can’t march around with.”

There are about 75 members in the band, led by drum major Taylor Madrid, who Fortino describes as the “pulse of the band.”

Madrid said while she has been playing an instrument since the fourth grade, it was not until she came to Hollister High that she discovered a love of performing after attending the summer band camp.

“I really liked it,” she said. “it expanded my friendships and made me think of music and participation completely differently. Anyone can be a part of a band if they have some interest and a good attitude.”

Madrid said that the marching band’s job is complicated by the members having to remember the right steps to the elaborate routines while having to play the music from memory, making her job as drum major essential.

“The band moves in time to the drum major’s hands,” she said. “It is a skill that doesn’t come easy. We have a lot of performers who start from nothing and do not understand how to watch my hand and time it with their feet. But as we practice, they grasp how everything works.”

Whatever she is doing up on the podium is clearly working. The Marching Band, which competed against some of the best bands in the Bay Area, took first place at the Gilroy competition and second at Cupertino. And 13 players have been accepted into the California Music Educators Association Central Coast Section Honor Band (CMEA CCS), which will be performing on Feb. 8 at Cabrillo College.

“There have been some amazing performances,” Fortino said. “Every single person came off the field at the championships feeling like that was their best of the year. And that is the payoff right there, after all the work, sweating in August and freezing in October and November.”

Band member Micah Bercasio said that being part of the group was her only reason for staying in music after not being given her choice of instrument in middle school, the clarinet, and having an instructor who could not teach the flute she was assigned.  That changed when she came to Hollister High.

“Ironically, the band lacked clarinet players,” she said, “so I asked if I could play one. It was my return to in-person learning with an experienced director, and it motivated me. I loved how good the band sounded and worked hard to be just as good.” 

Bercasio said she believes having the band at Baler football games helps keep the crowd on its feet and is a strong motivator for the players.

“I think I have seen a great improvement in the team this year,” she said, “And there has been an improvement in the band since last year as well. I think our energies feed off each other.”

With the backing of the Baler Boosters, the band members receive instruction and the use of the school’s musical instruments for free, which Bercasio said is unusual in a school program.

“There are other high schools,” she said, “that charge thousands of dollars to be a part of a marching band. I think money should not be an obstacle for anyone wanting to learn or perform music, and I like how our program fosters our musical journeys.”

By the numbers:

• There are 73 members in the Marching Band:
  • 18 colorguard
  • 33 winds
  • 21 percussion
  • 1 Drum Major (conductor)
• There are 37 members in Band 1 and 2 (Beginning and Intermediate)
• There are  41 members in Band 3 (Advanced)
• There are 14 members in the Jazz Band
• Winter Percussion Ensemble and Winter Guard are currently auditioning

Performances

• Homecoming Parade
• Hollister Veterans Day Parade
• San Juan Bautista Veterans Day Parade
• Lights On! Parade
• Los Gatos Children’s Holiday Parade
• San Juan Bautista Holiday of Lights Parade
• Six Football games
• Five Marching Band Competitions, including Union City and Fresno
• The Winter Concert

Members of the CMEA CCS Honor Band:

• Avery Cua,  Alto Saxophone
• Tristan Phillips,  Euphonium
• Jared Provencio,  Baritone Saxophone
• Leeza Gatson,  Bass Clarinet
• Micah Bercasio,  B-flat Clarinet
• Eduardo Rosas,  B-flat Clarinet
• Hillary Santamaria,  B-flat Clarinet
• Shyloh Gonzalez,  Horn
• Seven Alvarez,  Mallets
• Vivian Carrasco,  Mallets
• Taylor Madrid,  Oboe
• Megan Phillips,  Trumpet
• Sonia Zambrano,  Tuba

BenitoLink thanks our underwriter, Hollister Rotary, for helping expand the sports coverage around San Benito County. Rotary is a nonprofit organization that conducts humanitarian projects, encourages high ethical standards, and works toward world understanding. All editorial decisions are made by BenitoLink.

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