Millikan High School’s Winter Percussion finished a really successful season on Good Friday weekend! Winter Percussion is a marching indoor music ensemble that contains only percussion instruments and competes against other high schools during the Winter and Springtime.

Millikan’s show for this season was called “Float,” and it was themed to give the audience a feeling of blue skies with a bunch of clouds with balloons blowing in the wind while being attached to the drumline members. The show featured the song Raindrops by Ariana Grande.

The Rams competed against other schools in the Southern California Percussion Association (SCPA) circut. This was their first year competing in SCPA after previously competing in the American Drumline Association (ADLA). 

The Winter Percussion ensemble had their first SCPA competition on February 19 at Temescal Canyon High School. Millikan got 3rd place out of 15 schools in the Percussion Scholastic A division with a score of 73.150. Throughout the Winter and Spring they’ve had more competitions against more schools at various other locations. For their SCPA Championship Preliminaries competition, they were awarded 1st place out of 53 schools with a score of 89.400.

This performance ensemble has gotten new faces in the coaching staff. One of their new coaches is Pedro Ramos. Ramos is a staff member who also still competes for an independent percussion group. He is a cymbal line member for the world class independent winter percussion ensemble, Broken City Percussion which is based in Lake Elsinore, California. 

“I love performing with Broken City, and think teaching is certainly a performance itself,” says Ramos.

The Rams’ season finally came to an end on April 16 with their Championship Finals competition. They got to perform in the Toyota Arena, home of the AHL (not the NHL) Hockey Team Ontario Reagin in Ontario California. There were a total of only twelve schools in the Percussion Scholastic A division competing in the finals. Millikan got fifth place with a score of 89.375. However, they scored only a point and a half lower than the school that got 1st place! 

COMPASS sophomore and center marimba player Trent Williams says, “I feel astonished at how much we accomplished this season and it feels great to be a part of such a great organization and an amazing group of musicians.”

The Winter Percussion season was all around very successful and with their first time in the SCPA circuit, they made it all the way to finals. They are looking forward to the next SCPA season.