University of Hawaii Marching Band part of title game halftime show

The University of Hawaii Marching Band will be represented in front of a national audience today.

Eleven UH band members will be “participating” in the halftime show of the College Football Playoff National Championship between Ohio State and Alabama.

Because pandemic protocols prevent in-person musical entertainment, game organizers came up with a creative way to engage wide-spread participation. The College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) invited 1,500 performers from 200 bands in 45 states and Puerto Rico to perform Beyonce’s “End of Time.” The song’s arrangements, according to organizers, have parts for woodwinds, brass percussion, and front-line instruments.

UH was asked to provide 10 performers and an announcer. Band leaders chose Joey Nakamoto (trombone), Cassandra Ancheta (alto saxophone), Zachary Chang (snare drum), Michael Englar Jr. (trumpet) and Dane Pinell (mellophone) as musicians. Color guards Katelyn Tokunaga, Candice Sarangay, Haleysable Alicto and Isaiah Avilla; twirler Callyn Marvell, and announcer Fernando Pacheco also were invited to participate in the video collage.

Each musician and color guard was sent the song’s track. They recorded themselves performing for the entire 3-minute, 43-second song. The videos were sent to CBDNA, which edited snippets into a collage that will be shown at halftime.

“We thought it was pretty cool for our kids to do,” assistant director Gwen Nakamura said.

The UH band’s performances had been put on a pause during the pandemic. Rehearsals had been limited to on-line collaborations. There was a brief period when the drumline, spaced socially distant apart, met in groups of five. Thirty cardboard cutouts represented the band at four UH basketball games. “It was tough all the way around,” Nakamura said.

And then the CBDNA invitation came. “I was really honored to be selected to be part of this big national performer,” said Chang, a civil engineering major.

Chang said he recorded his performance in the band’s percussion room. “I was by myself,” he said. “It was different from playing with everyone else in person. I’m harder on myself, so I wanted to get it perfect. It took me quite a bit to get my best rep I could. It was a lot of stopping and restarting.”

Overall, an appreciative Chang said, “it was a really good experience.”

Last year’s title game drew 25.59 million television viewers.