Marching band heads to jolly England for first time
SAMOHI Cheers to Harry Potter and tea with crumpets.
The Santa Monica High School marching band will be marching over the Atlantic to London, England in 2009, ringing in the new year by performing in the city’s holiday parade.
The 130-member marching band and colorguard will head to perform in the New Year’s Day Parade in London, the entertainment unit’s first trip out of the country since the 1960s when it performed in Mazatlan.
Besides performing, the band will spend the eight-day trip seeing the sites in England.
With the opportunity to travel abroad and spend a week away from home, the number of band and col-orguard members is expected to increase next year.
“Of course with that kind of excitement, it (will help) the recruiting,” said Terry Sakow, the director of bands at Samohi. “More kids will want to do marching band, so we might have a slightly bigger band next year.”
The trip is expected to heighten visibility for the 92-year-old high school’s marching band program, boosting recruitment, especially if the trips become a regular feature for the award-winning program.
“Obviously it adds to the reputation to play overseas,” Sakow said.
The parade’s organizing committee contacted the band director in September to extend an invitation to perform in the 22-year-old parade whose route travels along some of the city’s most famous sites, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Piccadilly Circus. The committee learned about Santa Monica High School’s marching band thanks to Gary Locke, the long-time band director at Riverside Community College that endorsed the Viking marching band.
Sakow had been sitting on the news since September, waiting to make sure the trip would even be logistically possible before making the announcement on Thursday.
The marching band seldom goes on international excursions or even out-of-state. The last major trip was in 2003 when the band performed in Washington D.C. for the capital’s famous Fourth of July celebration. The wind ensemble, a subset of the marching band, performed at Carnegie Hall during Memorial Day earlier this year.
The main reason why the band usually stays local is because of the burden from the level of preparation required and cost associated with a trip that would ship more than 100 kids overseas, booking not only hotels, flights and restaurants, but also finding enough chaperones.
But Sakow said he decided to accept the invitation because of London’s rich history and band tradition.
“It’s not something we want to do a lot because it’s a lot of work,” he said.
The trip is estimated to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,100 a student, which would include the flight, room and food.
One of the oldest marching bands in the state, the Viking marching band was established in 1915 with founding director Arnold Wagner at its helm. The program flourished under the direction of Dick Wagnon in the 1950s during which time the band marched in the Tournament of Roses parade. Sakow calls Wagnon the “father of the program.”
Sakow has lead the band since 1990 and is believed to be the longest serving band director at the high school. The band marched in the Hollywood Christmas Parade a few years ago.
“They are excited,” he said about the trip. “A lot of kids have never been out of the state, some kids have never been on an airplane.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 5, 2007. Read the original PDF.