The MVHS Marching Band merged with the Lynbrook High School Marching Band for the 2025-2026 season, which will result in collective performances at school events and combined efforts at competitions. According to MVHS Music Director and MVHS-LHS Marching Band Director John Gilchrist, the development of the combined program began last fall in collaboration with LHS Musical Director Michael Pakaluk.
The merger is mainly due to declining enrollment in recent years, which nearly resulted in the elimination of the LHS Marching Band. Having collaborated in the past, especially with Gilchrist formally completing his student teaching experience under Pakaluk’s mentorship, the two directors began discussing possible solutions to the lack of participation last fall. Finally, Gilchrist and Pakaluk proposed combining the two bands. Both Gilchrist and Pakaluk believe that along with their personal connection and the MVHS and LHS Marching Bands’ previous cooperation on a tour to Carnegie Hall in New York last year, the transition will be smooth.
“Throughout the years, especially when I eventually found my way back to FUHSD, Mr. Pakaluk and I connected a lot,” Gilchrist said. “We share a lot of the same teaching philosophies and musical philosophies. We thought that if we combined our bands, we would be able to pool all our resources together. We’d be able to pool our numbers together as well, being able to fill in each other’s strengths and weaknesses to have a really awesome program.”
Junior and drum major Tara Brumand first heard about a possible merger between bands through rumors during the 2024-2025 winter season, which Gilchrist confirmed to the band students in April. She believes that combining with the LHS Marching Band will be beneficial for both parties, especially with greater participation, enhancing the combined band’s overall sound and allowing them to compete in higher divisions. Additionally, Brumand is looking forward to experiencing and interacting with new cultures, traditions and identities, even though she understands the potential setbacks it may cause.
“I really think that the benefits to this merger greatly outweigh the difficulties that we might face,” Brumand said. “I really believe that because we have so many people in our band the show is gonna sound really amazing and we’re just gonna have such a fun time together. I feel like we’re all really gonna grow as people and as instrumentalists.”
Like Brumand, LHS junior and ensemble section co-leader Kevin Ho learned about the merger through rumors. While he reacted positively to the merger, Ho recalls numerous of his peers having mixed reactions. With MVHS dominating the combined band population, many LHS Marching Band members were anxious about adjusting to a new culture. However, since the merger coincides with the reconstruction of the MVHS football field, the combined band will rehearse at LHS from August through most of October, which, according to Gilchrist, offers a solution to concerns that all practices would be held at MVHS — due to the MVHS band majority — which potentially may have led to more LHS students leaving.
“A lot of the initial conflicts revolved around the traditions or things that we used to do,” Ho said. “For example, the way we end practice has recently changed for the LHS side, and some people didn’t like how it changed just because it’s different. But I don’t think it comes down to an interpersonal conflict. It is just that we want to set a precedent for the following years, and how we set it — that’s the main difficulty we had.”
Nevertheless, after the band camp in early August, which introduces members to their band roles and is the first opportunity for the group to bond, Gilchrist, Ho and Brumand agree that the students are adapting to each other and have integrated as one united band despite the initial friction.
“I’d say everybody’s adapting really quickly,” Gilchrist said. “Everybody seems to be getting along really well. We’ve been playing some bonding games and it’s just fun to see everybody interact with each other and tap into that childlike enjoyment. I think it’s really cool to see people connect with people from different schools and it just feels really natural because they’re both here for the same shared interest.”
Even though the band is yet to perform as a combined group in a competitive environment, Gilchrist, Ho and Brumand are looking forward to exploring how it will develop into a fully-fledged unit. In the meantime, Ho says that he is satisfied with the band’s growth and their impressive progress.
“The main success is that we’re a lot bigger,” Ho said. “When you’re bigger as a band, just standing there will be impressive, because being able to get so many people to move on a field is already impressive, even if you aren’t doing anything interesting. So, I’m hoping that we continue to thrive, especially that the numbers stay well balanced between MVHS and LHS. But beyond that, I’m really happy because we’ve done a very good job of making sure that LHS is integrated — we’ve taken it from a Monta Vista plus Lynbrook group to one big, united band.”
