Welcome!
As I type this, I’m sitting in the bleachers at Willie Chavez Stadium- colloquially known as ‘The Football Field’- listening to the Los Lunas High School Tiger Marching Band rehearse their 2024 competition show, entitled ‘Dreams Through the Eyes of an Artist’. It’s a warm October evening, a few nights before the first competition of the season, and the students are working on perfecting their show. It’s both nostalgic, and extremely real for me- a former Tiger Band member turned Band Booster- so I thought I’d take this time to introduce you to the Los Lunas High School Tiger Band.
There are all sorts of facts that I could rattle off about Los Lunas High School, such as what district and division we belong to, our student population, our state testing scores, and so forth. But none of those things can begin to explain the hometown pride and history that this band represents.
Los Lunas High School is located in the small town of Los Lunas, New Mexico. Our town is a suburb of Albuquerque- the largest city in the state- and like a lot of the other cities, towns, and villages, in the state of New Mexico, we’ve been around quite a while. However, despite our town’s lengthy existence, our high school has only been around for 98 years.
Los Lunas High School was first named Solomon Luna High School when it was founded in 1926 in order to lessen the burden of travel on students who, previously, had to travel to Belen High School to complete their education. The original school building sits on Luna Avenue in Los Lunas, and is currently used to house the Special Services department for the school district.
Construction on the current site began in 1968, and the original building was completed in 1970, comprising the original cafeteria, gym, library, and the original South hallway. The Fine Arts wing- comprised of the Elfego Orona Auditorium, the Band, Drama, and Choir classrooms, and the art classrooms on the second floor- wasn’t added until much latter- students were dropped off at Los Lunas Middle School and then bussed to the high school in order to participate in Band until the mid 1980s.
Los Lunas High School has had a music program, almost from the very beginning. I haven’t yet tracked down exactly when Band was first offered as an elective in the school district, but it appears to have been a priority from the get-go because the Los Lunas Middle School band rooms are part of the original building. We’ve come a long way since those early days of hosting high school band rehearsals in what is still the LLMS band room, but it is this long history and tradition of a well-supported music program that has brought us to where we are today. And, as a 2nd Generation Tiger Band Member, raising a 3rd Generation Member, I am beyond excited to see where this program goes in the next 100 years!
Please drop your memories in the comments below, and it’s great to have you along for the ride!