“This is probably one of the hardest shows that Oviedo has done, both visually, general effect in music overall on the field.”

This was the first thing Zac Chowning, the director of the Oviedo High School Marching Lions band, had to say about this year’s show, Colony 1. Colony 1 is a four movement competition-style band production that has been developed by a talented team of arrangers: Chowning himself for Winds, Mitchell Beckman for Front Ensemble (also known as Pit), and Zac Martins for battery (also known as Drumline). Visual staff includes, but is not limited to, Stevenson Lumapas and Michael James for Color Guard and Brian Kraft for Wind and Battery Drill.

Movement One of Colony 1 has been named “Ethereal”, and has been performed several times. Ethereal is 131 measures in length, with its primary track being “Apocalypse Please” by Muse. It also includes parts of “Firebird Suite: Infernal Dance” by Igor Stravinsky.

The piece has received high praise from members of the band and staff.

“I’m all for that dark sound—those kinds of aggressive and angular musical motifs that are featured throughout. I like how it’s woven together, and it’s probably one of my favorite openers I’ve heard from any high school,” Chowning said.

Students shared similar enthusiasm. “I love the opener. It’s got singing in it. I mean, not every opener has singing,” said Shane Toole, a junior who plays xylophone in the Front Ensemble.

Matthew Fecko, a senior tuba player and the Equipment Crew Chief, simply said, “Definitely the opener,” when describing his favorite movement.

Movement Two of Colony 1 has been named “Belonging.” It made its debut on Sept. 26 during Oviedo’s game against Wekiva High School in a post-game performance. The movement is a 60 measure sonnet featuring tracks such as “Lovely” by Billie Eilish and “Never Thought You’d Leave for Summer” by Steve Wonder. It also features a saxophone duet and a glockenspiel solo in its waning measures. Movement Two is different from the other movements as it has no drumline play during its duration.

The ballad has garnered praise from students like junior Gabrielle Culhane, a marimba player and the Percussion Captain.

“It’s pretty cool; it’s also much slower and much nicer than Movement 1,” Culhane said.

“[My favorite part is] the ballad, because there’s just a spectacular dance that’s happening near the end of it, and I have a great dance partner,” said senior Color Guard dancer Donald Napier. “It’s just gonna look wonderful.”

Movement Three of Colony 1 has been named “Rooted.” It serves as a percussion feature, which means there are no winds playing for its duration. The percussion feature is an all original arrangement by Martins and Beckman. The movement opens with a snare drum solo by sophomore center snare Nathan Knizatko, before going into a full percussion ensemble at the front of the field. “Rooted” made its debut at the halftime show of Oviedo’s game against in-town rival Hagerty on Oct. 3, 2025. 

Movement Four is the final movement of Colony 1 and has been named “Other World”. It serves as the closer of the Colony 1 show. A very “Interstellar”-esque piece, hence the name “Other World,” it transitions into an almost fanfare-like affair calling back to “Firebird Suite,” which is played among “Revolution” by Unsecret and original arrangements by Chowning and Beckmant. “Other World” made its debut during the postgame show at home against Lake Howell on October 10th, 2025. The closer also features a trumpet duet performed by Juniors Paul Wu and Brandon Mendoza.

The props lineup consists of eight coffins, ten scaffolding, and a door attached to the scaffolding. These props are some of the main components of Colony 1.

“I’m excited about [the props], especially, you know, the beginning, the walls opening up, the door, the main entrance door opening up,” Chowning said. “And then we move across from the, you know, left side of the field, from an audience perspective to the a little off to the 50 on the other side for the ballad, and then finally we end the exact opposite side of the field on the right, the same angle of the diagonal, and those walls close, and the last thing that happens is the doors will close with the two characters walking out.”

“It’s a lot, but the props are setting us up for future years so we don’t have to keep making a ton of new things every year, we can just reuse and recycle,” Fecko said.

The props’ origin falls with the origins of much of Oviedo’s percussion equipment: Infinity Percussion, a world class percussion organization.

“They had these props for their second group that we found very interesting. And when we started talking about that show, we’re like, what if we could just use those? So, those props were already put together, which saved us a lot of time and fit the show perfectly,” Chowning said. “And we also borrowed these boxes that are hollow and have a side open to hide in that are from their third group, Infinity III, and we were able to put all that together and kind of color matched it and everything and make it work.”

Colony 1 was never going to be Colony 1. It was originally going to be “Tron”-themed. Then time travel. So many ideas about this year’s show were in circulation until a fateful design meeting.

“[Michael James] came up with the idea of, you know, coming back to the past, a character coming back from or coming from the future to the past and bringing someone with them to inspire them to go with them and back into the future,” Chowning said.

From that moment on, the ideas flowed greater, and Chowning said, “We knew this was the right show to do.”