The Farmington High School marching band took the field during halftime for their first performance of the season. From even their first run-through, they turned some heads in the stands AND in the news after finishing their program “Dystopia.”

Unfortunately, the attention wasn’t on them for the reasons the performers or their Director of Bands, Erin Holmes, wanted. 

The ending of their show, based around the concepts of "The Hunger Games", "Divergent", and "1984", spells out the word “RESIST” on their props. Once this was put on display for the first time, the school’s administration and Holmes began to receive criticisms that the show was politically motivated.

While researching the Farmington band program to follow-up on the story of their controversial show ending, out popped an entirely different story worth focusing on in Farmington.

The story is on Holmes herself, confidently setting a path for women's success in the music and marching world. 

The marching arts is currently going through a seismic shift as women are recognized more and more for their work in a very male-dominated community. Holmes is one of those women who is brazenly leading the charge.

YOU’RE JUST OVERREACTING

Shortly after being named the first female director of bands at Farmington, Holmes hired assistant band director, Bradley Mariska. While Holmes is known to exhibit a calm yet demanding demeanor, Mariska is the highly energetic counterbalance that Holmes knew would be great for her program. 

“We play the good cop, bad cop thing pretty well,” Holmes said. “But we don’t fake who we are either with the kids.”

Holmes embraced the role of shaping and molding the direction she wanted the program to head while Mariska was well-known throughout the Minnesota band community and would often take on the role as “promoter” or the face of the band program.

However, prior to attending the Minnesota Music Educator Association convention, Holmes asked Mariska to observe how their fellow male colleagues interacted with the duo. 

Holmes warned Mariska that he would be assumed to be the director of bands while Holmes would be treated as the assistant director. 

Mariska initially responded thinking that Holmes would be over-assuming in her predictions.

As Holmes and Mariska made their rounds at the MMEA convention, it became evident to Mariska that Holmes was correct.

Repeatedly, their counterparts would engage with Mariska assuming he was the head director at Farmington. 

Mariska later confided to Holmes that he was in complete shock at how the interactions went at the convention. 

“[Mariska] said he couldn’t believe it,” Holmes said. “He said it just floored him by the number of people who assumed he was the decision maker even though it was very clear that I was in charge.”

Holmes said that Mariska does a wonderful job making sure that all of their colleagues at the school and throughout the music community understand that he is not the head director. This point is also emphasized in their teachings to the students. 

LEADING THE WAY

In 2017, Holmes was named one of the “50 Directors Who Makes a Difference” by School Band and Orchestra magazine.

Then, in 2018, Holmes became the first woman ever to serve as the director of the all-state jazz band in Minnesota. 

When asked about being the first woman director of the jazz program, Holmes said it was a great honor, but has shifted her focus towards the students auditioning. 

She noticed that there were no female students in the all-state jazz band and that even at her own program there were very few female musicians.

Holmes understood it wasn’t a matter of talent but that it was a lack of female students auditioning.

Holmes came to the realization that female students may be feeling intimidated to audition, even for her own band, because jazz itself has been such a male-dominated area for so long.

Holmes’ focus is now giving the young females musicians in her programs the self-confidence to audition and, in effect, be more successful during their early musical careers.

NOT GOING TO LET THIS DEFEAT ME

Holmes’ musical career began in elementary school when she was singing and taking piano lessons. However, it was her first saxophone private lesson that she learned a valuable lesson about not giving up her dreams. 

After an hour of instruction, Holmes struggled to produce a single sound from her sax. It just wasn’t happening. 

Later that night when she was at home, she felt dejected and upset about her lesson. Her dreams of becoming a band director were already in jeopardy because she couldn’t even play a note on her sax.

Then, Holmes looked over at her saxophone case in the corner of the room and said to herself, “I’m not letting this defeat me.” 

She opened the case and attempted to produce some sort of sound. A squawk. A squeak. Anything. And again, after hours of struggle...

*HONK*

“It was the most god-awful sound any saxophone in the history of music has ever made,” Holmes said. “But I made it.”