By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
When she takes the stage at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., this month, Princeton High School sophomore Katherine Gerberich will try her best not to look into the crowd.
She and the rest of the school’s highly regarded studio band made up of 35 students who have to audition to get in will be in Washington Jan.21 performing a one-hour concert the night of the presidential inauguration.
Though not part of the official inauguration festivities, the performance is another feather in the cap of a band that, through its 36-year history, has performed at Carnegie Hall and other venues around the world.
The students are due to leave by bus Monday morning, stop in Baltimore for lunch and then get to the Capital in time to perform the free show starting at 6 p.m. Joe Bongiovi, the band director now in his seventh year at the high school, has chosen all the music selections the students will perform, including pieces from Count Basie and others.
Mr. Bongiovi said he is treating this strictly as a business trip, no different from when the band has performed in Italy, Hawaii or California. Students are excited about being in Washington on the historic day.
”I think being in D.C. that day, I’m sure it’ll feel like an important day for all of us,” said senior Lucy Guan, an alto sax player.
The band has a history of being in Washington this time of year. Princeton High School students performed at inaugural balls for former President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and for former President George H.W. Bush in 1989, Mr. Bongiovi said.
The band applied to the Inaugural Committee for President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, only to be misclassified as a marching band, he said. The band applied again for this year, when it simultaneously received an invitation from the Kennedy Center to perform at the venue located next to the Watergate Complex.
”The Kennedy Center’s expecting a big crowd of non-Washington residents because they’re a major source of tourism to begin with and because of the inauguration, more people are going to be in town than normal,” he said.
Though they will be in the city, students are not going to be able to witness the swearing-in ceremony in person. And Mr. Obama is not expected to attend the Kennedy Center concert, although it will be shown live on the center’s webpage, www.kennedy-center.org.
”I’m sure that he’s got other events to go to,” Mr. Bongiovi said.
Ms. Gerberich, who plays the drums, said the Kennedy Center would be the largest venue in which she has ever played. Her parents are planning to take the train to Washington so they can watch, as are other band parents.
”It’s a pretty big honor to play on Inauguration Day, in Washington D.C.,” she said. “It’ll be fun to showcase everything we’ve practiced and practiced (and) practiced.”
Mr. Bongiovi is no stranger to the Kennedy Center, as he performs there each summer as director of the Philadelphia Jazz Orchestra. Music also runs in the family: his grandfather, Joseph, was big band saxophone player and clarinetist; his maternal great-grandfather was a concert violinist; and a distant third-cousin is rock legend Jon Bon Jovi.
”We’re not close with them at all,” said Mr. Bongiovi, who pronounces his last name the same way his famous cousin does.

