Music for All’s Bands of America Honor Band will march in The Rose Parade on New Year’s Day 2022 in Pasadena, California. With more than 300 members, this national honor band will represent school band programs across America. Meet the members!

Why did you apply to be a member of the Honor Band?

I applied to be a member of the Honor band to meet other amazing musicians and take the next step in my musical career. As I want to be a band director when I grow up, I think of every opportunity to play as a way to sharpen my abilities. The Rose Bowl parade seemed to be a once in a lifetime opportunity to show off my skills. I’m more than thrilled to put all my practice and hard-work to use by being apart of this band!

What part of the trip are you most excited about?

Honestly what excites me the most is meeting other musicians. While Disney World and other activities excite me the real reason I’m going on this trip is to get to work with other musicians. So I’m most excited for the practices and actually marching at the Rose Bowl parade.

What are three things you’ve learned from being involved in your high school music program?

I could go on and on about how I learned certain breathing exercises or techniques but I believe music is more than that. Something that resonated with me the most is the idea to “not kick the baby.” It’s the speech my band director told the rookies my freshman year. It basically means instead of beating yourself up over mistakes celebrate the tiny successes. I’ve also learned that band is something that is bigger than yourself. One person cannot make the band great: it has to be a mutual effort.

To date, what is your favorite memory of being involved in your high school band program?

Most of my favorite memories in my high school marching band date back to my freshman marching band season. That year is when I truly decided to become a band director when I grew up. My middle school had a tiny band so just being apart of something so grand excited me. The Marquette marching band was at the top of their game when I made it into high school. They had more members than they ever had in the past and the work put into that band skyrocketed. A lot of my favorite memories were at award ceremonies with my fellow bandmates. One that stuck out to me was at our overnight trip. The trip itself was fun but the night after our competition was the best part. After we had performed it started pouring which meant finals were going to be cancelled. I was devastated as we had trouble with rain all season. We waited in the bus for a while till it died down. That night they held the award show. Everyone was kinda bummed until we heard the results. Of course, it honestly doesn’t matter what place we got but the unity and sheer excitement my band had was amazing. We ended up getting first in our division and second overall. My band wasn’t one of the flashy bands with 100’s of people but we put our heart and soul into the performance. When we made it back to the buses everyone was screaming and jumping up and down. A bunch of the staff and upperclassmen gave speeches about how far the program had come. That memory always reminds me to give it my all and will always be one of my favorite high memories.

What are your post-graduation plans?

I plan on pursuing music education after I graduate. My goal is to get my master’s, teach at a high school, and then possibly get a doctorate.

Have you participated in any Music for All or Bands of America activities before? If so, which ones?

The only Bands of America events I’ve participated in is BOA with the Marquette marching band.

Tell us something unique about yourself.

I’m working on learning all the bass instruments. So far I know trombone, baritone, tuba, and bass guitar. I plan on learning string bass sometime in the future.

List your favorites!

Song or piece of music: The imperial march

Band, Artist, Musical Group, etc.: Cavetown

Movie: Any movie from the conjuring series

TV Show: Naruto

Book: Outliers

You’re on a deserted island and you can only choose one from each category:

Dessert: Cake

Entertainment: Playing Board Games

Social Media: TikTok