Two local high school bands have received invitations to perform in national ceremonies and events upcoming in Washington, D.C.
Collegedale Academy’s band will play a patriotic concert at the Lincoln Memorial this Friday, then the 60 students in grades 9-12 will perform the national anthem for a flag ceremony at Fort McHenry on April 30.
Director Richard Hickam said the performances are part of the band’s five-day spring tour. While in D.C., students will also tour the Capitol, the Pentagon and National Mall.
Central High School’s Sound of Central Band will be in the nation’s capital over Memorial Day weekend to march in the National Memorial Day Parade on May 30.
Central’s band is the only band from Tennessee in the parade, according to Dana Barka, parade publicist.
Band director Angelo Kortyka said the parade will be televised on the Fox network for the first time this year.
“We’re dedicating our performance in the parade to our late Band Booster president, Kenny Smith, who passed away from cancer last year. He was a Marine, and we are playing the ‘Marines’ Hymn’,” said Kortyka.
Rachel Walls, CHS sophomore who plays clarinet, said, “He was the dad of one of my best friends. I remember he always cared more about others than he did about himself.”
Kortyka said the band submitted a video last October for consideration. Forty students will make the four-day trip, which also includes sightseeing in the Smithsonian and the Holocaust Museum, and a visit with the Army Band’s Pershing’s Own.
A highlight of the CHS students’ visit will be attending the National Memorial Day Concert on May 29, which is annually broadcast by PBS, said the director.
Trumpeter Julius Johnson, a senior at Central, said this will be his first trip to Washington.
“I’m looking forward to watching the other bands in the parade and seeing the White House,” he said.
“We’ve been doing fundraisers to pay for the trip, and other students at school have been supportive. We’ve let them know this is our first time to have the opportunity to do something like this,” Johnson said.