This coming winter break, band and color guard will be participating in the 136th annual Rose Parade presented by Honda in Pasadena, California Jan. 1.
The Rose Parade is one of the largest New Year’s parades to take place in the US every year.
“We had to submit a huge application and provide performances of parades and marching contests and write a few essays about the program,” said band director Maximo Sierra about the process in being chosen to participate.
Only ten bands in the country are chosen every year to perform. Pebble Hills is the only high school in El Paso to ever be selected to engage in any national parade.
Being in the middle of marching season and still having to look forward to concert, jazz band, and Music for All next semester as well as Midwest in December, Sierra hopes to condition his musicians to marching parade style in order to prepare for the upcoming events.
“We’re going to do a lot of marching in parade style, and we need to figure out what we’re going to play for the Rose Bowl,” he said.
“There’s a performance where we can do next year’s marching show, they call that band day. They (the bands) all meet at the Rose Bowl and perform their shows and then the actual parade,” Sierra said about the other exciting parts that come with the parade instead of just marching.
“In the parade, there’s a section where they’ll stop, and it’ll be televised on national television, so we have to perform something and sound good and visually look good.”
Senior Andrew Blea, who has been a member of the marching band for the past three years, expresses his aspirations for the once in a lifetime opportunity.
“I just hope to get the best experience out of performing at the Rose Bowl,” Blea said. “I look forward to experiencing the scary moments of being televised!”
Nonetheless, this opportunity will give everlasting benefits to the marching band and color guard program even when it’s over.
“I think it’ll be great for recruitment, there’s a disconnect from middle school to high school and they (students) don’t want to do band in high school. Hopefully it’s a huge tool to use as far as motivation,” Sierra said.
