Underneath the Friday night lights, the student section grows electric as Fresno Christian scores a touchdown. The melodic and powerful sound of the band rises in the stands. Senior Drum Major Bella Barrett leads the group with enthusiasm, arms cutting through the air, conducting the band with precision. The music sends waves over the crowd and the student section cheers with excitement.
These talented students channel their faith through their music at every event they attend, and surprisingly, there are only 10 of them.
Led by Lindsey Clarno, Director of Instrumental Music at FC for four years, the band prepares for the upcoming season. After leading and conducting bands at many different levels for 28 years, Clarno gained lots of experience with smaller and larger bands.
“I have worked in small schools before where 10% of the school was in a band, and those were great groups,” Clarno said. “There is no reason why we couldn’t see that kind of growth at FC, now that we can have Beginning Band in 6th grade, Eagle Band in Junior High, FC Band in High School, and Jazz Ensemble for the most advanced students.”
Clarno held the position of Drum Major as a high school student, she holds band close to her heart and is very passionate about her job as the band director for FC. She has been leading and conducting bands “long before any FCS students were born.”
The band maintains a prominent presence at FC, performing at annual parades during Christmas time and Veterans Day. Jazz band and FC band grow in success every year. FC Band rose to the top 20% of adjudicated groups nationwide. Jazz Band earned a Gold rating at the Los Angeles’ Forum Festival in 2024. They are in the top 10% of adjudicated groups nationwide. This impressive Gold rating gained them an invite to the Forum Judges’ Invitational Festival in Anaheim.
These rankings are hard to beat, but what happens when the band only consists of 10 students?
Xyra Baranda, ‘27, percussionist for the FC and Jazz Bands, six-year band student, plays the snare drum. Participating in band for the past six years earned her valuable knowledge and experience. Baranda is a veteran, up for the challenge of playing with a small band.
“It used to be a lot of people in percussion and now there’s one, which is just me,” Baranda said. “It’s kind of hard because there’s no one in your section and if you are having difficulty with a piece, you can’t really ask anyone else because they don’t have the same music, and it’s really all on yourself.”
The FC and Jazz Band are both much smaller this year. Many factors come into play. One shift is from skill-based groups to grade level groups, which resulted in a drastic change in the band’s environment. Skill based groups allowed talented middle school students to participate in FC and Jazz Band. Now with the change to grade-level groups, Eagle Band has become a truly intermediate band, and they cannot join or play in FC Band. This caused the size of the band to decrease.
Senior Drum Major Barrett started band in first grade and gained valuable experience with multiple instruments, including the piano, alto and tenor saxophone, which makes her highly qualified for her position. She exhibits a unique view on the switch from skill based groups to grade level groups.
“For one it changed the morale of the group because there were so many maturity levels combined in one room,” Barrett said. “Now that it’s split it seems like we are more tight knit, I would say it’s a positive.”
The band also dealt with losing students to other schools such as University High, and other extracurricular activities, like Spanish. The band lost nine out of the 19 students who participated previously. With six students who moved schools, two who graduated, and another taking a different extracurricular, the band downsized significantly.
Clarno, FC’s passionate band director, embraces leading this smaller band.
“We can hear each other much better, so we have a more unified sound and style,” Clarno said. “It also fosters more musical independence as there may be only one person playing each part. With fewer sounds to mesh together, we can make it all sound better more easily than with a huge group. And we become a tighter-knit family, too.”
While the smaller band certainly presents challenges, it also helps the students grow closer and allows them to become one unified group.
The decrease of students certainly has its downsides, and adapting will be difficult. With Clarno’s positivity and students’ hard work and dedication, the band’s future holds lots of potential.
The band participates in three local concerts this year, so keep an eye out for the dates and make sure to support your Eagles!
To read more from The Feather visit Leadership team takes exciting new strides into the 2025-26 school year or Seniors build faith and fellowship at annual retreat.
