Less than a year after becoming a full in-school program, the Pacific Beach Middle School (PBMS) band has struck gold. The band brought home a gold medal at the Forum Music Festival in Orange County on May 21. “To get a gold was purely an effort and accomplishment on their part,” said band director John O’Donnell. “It was their decision to achieve that.” Although medals were handed out for first-, second-, and third-place awards, the PBMS band was the only group out of 10 competing schools to receive a gold rating, making its performance the best of the festival. What makes the achievement more impressive is that the band members did it with only 23 members and without trombones. “The way we got around that is that was one of the percussion players played the trombone part on the keyboard and we wrote that to the judges,” O’Donnell said. “One of our percussion players had to learn sheet music.” During their performance, the band performed two numbers – “Three Classic Miniatures,” which samples classical composers Haydn, Purcell and Teleman, and “White River Canyon (Overture).” But O’Donnell said the PBMS group impressed the festival judges before even playing a note. “We didn’t ramble onto the stage. We walked in as a unit and the children stood until everyone had a chair and a stand and then they sat together,” O’Donnell said. “These are things you do to get to the judges. We trained and practiced that.” A few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine such a sudden gilded future for the PBMS performers. After years without music programs at PBMS, a group of parents went to school supporters Friends of Pacific Beach Secondary Schools asking for support for after-school choir and band programs before the 2007-08 school year. Friends of PB Secondary Schools obliged and supported the band for two years (they still support the choir program) before it grew strong enough to become part of the school’s curriculum and the regular school day. The district’s Visual and Performing Arts Department currently funds the band. The freshly crowned PBMS band will play its final concert Tuesday, June 15 in the school’s theater. In addition to its own set, PBMS will perform a combined piece with the band from Muirlands Middle School in La Jolla during the free concert. “It’s going to be fun. We’re rehearsing in our own groups but it’s going to be impossible to rehearse them before the concert,” O’Donnell said. “They will have never played together before, but I’m going to guarantee it’s going to be good.” PB Middle School is located at 4676 Ingraham St. For more information, visit pbmiddle.sandi.net. PBMS gold-medal winning band members are: Colton Ambrose, Mark Armstrong, Eden Causey, Kevin Gomez, Conner Herron, Kiana Jones, Max Kappele, Max Le May-Zambrano, Michael Martinez, Justus McCabe, Jackson Menezes, Erik Mosely, Katrina Rivett, Nick Schoettle, Sara Serafimovski, Haruka Takahashi, Priscilla Tamborini, Colin Tandy, Hannah Tandy, Anna Thuleen, Josue Vazquez, Malcolm Weslin and Corey Zimmerman.