Markos Egure has been painting the mural on the band room since late 2010 and after much work it is finally complete.

The mural includes many elaborate details, such as great musicians of the past.

Initially, the painting was going to be less than half of the size it is now.

“After the donation and upgrade phases this mural went from three murals into one continuous mural project,” Egure said.

The Sacramento River Cats provided the funds for this mural, but Egure wasn’t content with the results.

He donated his time and his tools to make it just how he wanted it.

“Wes Kos Images and I already want to produce the best mural I can each and every time I’m in production but after I started I was inspired to make it even better,” Egure said.

“I increased the overall size because the mural should reflect the music program at Rio.”

The painting was designed as three different murals, but eventually became one connected piece.

“The challenging part was combining all three murals into one continuous mural in mid-design and making look as if I planned it all along,” he said.

“When working on-site there are a lot of factors to make something like this happen. This isn’t art on a computer, paper or a small portable canvass.”

Band director Josh Murray is pleased with the result.

“We’re thrilled with the way the mural turned out,” Murray said.

“It represents the three facets of our band program: classical, Jazz and Pop music. Our goal was for people arriving on Rio’s campus to know right away that music is important here.”

Students too have expressed their enthusiasm regarding the mural, whether those students were in band or not.

“It’s awesome because it represents the spirit of the Rio band,” senior and band member Bethany Abad said.

“It’s great to go to a beautifully decorated building every day to play music.”

“I think it’s really cool in educating people about music history,” freshman Sierra Morena said.

“It must have taken a lot of work to finish.”

Egure tried to make the mural match the unique personality of the award winning Rio band.

“I was impressed with the talents from the musical youth artists,” Egure said.

“As a visual artist from Sacramento, I wanted to give back to future artist possibly on their way to living in the arts.”

This may not be the last of Egure at Rio as he hopes the project will grow.

“We still have two more sides,” he said.

He will possibly continue on the other sides of the building, and hopefully even more passion, creativity, and swing can be displayed on campus.

The official displaying of the mural will be on Tuesday, April 30 from 4:30 to 6:30. The event will feature musical performances by the Rio band.

After various music, there will be time to discuss information about the mural and artist. Egure will be at the event until 6:30.

Egure’s mural has gotten much deserved positive attention, and has become a part of the Rio atmosphere.

Now the band room looks on the outside the way it feels to students on the inside.