LBHS band performs at D.C. Cherry Blossom Festival
By Toni Miles
The Long Beach High School Band marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival parade last month.
The Long Beach High School Band marched down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., as part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival parade last month.
Members of the Long Beach High School (LBHS) band put their talent on display in the nation’s capital during the National Cherry Blossom Festival parade, held on Saturday, April 12, as part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C.
They marched down Constitution Avenue for all the world to see, as the parade aired on ABC and was live-streamed on the National Cherry Blossom’s website and YouTube channel.
Bands are selected to participate in the parade through an “audition” process, where bands submit records of previous years, videos of performances, and scores and ratings. After that, a committee selects which bands will be chosen for the parade. This year, the Long Beach High School band made the cut, a prestigious honor that has been forty-five years in the making as a repeat. The LBHS band last performed at the National Cherry Blossom Festival back in 1980.
In true patriotic fashion, the LBHS band performed a modern rendition of John Philip Sousa’s classic, “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” arranged by brass and woodwind arranger Alex Denton of Tennessee. Percussion music was arranged by none other than Zachary A. Cannon, director of bands for Long Beach High School. To mix it up, the LBHS band also played “Hooked on a Feeling,” featured in Guardians of the Galaxy, as an alternate parade tune.
About one-hundred-twenty students went on the trip.
“It’s the first trip to Washington, D.C., for many of them,” said Cannon. “It’s also the first trip anywhere outside of the state of Mississippi for some of them.
“We were all ecstatic to go to Washington, D.C., to represent our community, school and state,” Cannon said.
Accompanying Cannon and the students on the trip were Nathan Waycaster, Michael Jochumsen, Emmanuel Carney and percussion instructor Holly Brown.
Before the trip, rehearsals were held during and after school to prepare for the event. They also worked on parade formation marching in an effort to look as professional as possible on live TV.
Outside of their performance and practice times, the group had the opportunity to visit national monuments and museums, Mount Vernon, Arlington Cemetery, meet U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, and enjoy a dinner cruise on the Potomac River. They closed out the trip with a visit to Busch Gardens.
According to Cannon, it was an all-around great opportunity for everyone involved.
“This is an opportunity for the students to celebrate their success and perform on a national stage,” Cannon said. “This will hopefully lead to more national exposure (Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and/or Rose Bowl Parade, to name a few), as well as to have an opportunity to represent our community at the national level. Being invited to this event is proof of our students’ and staff’s hard work.
This is also an educational opportunity for our students to visit a historical place that many have only read about in books or have seen on the news, TV and movies. These students worked extremely hard. The trip was a major celebration of that hard work and the experience of a lifetime!” Cannon said.
