Allentown High School Redbird Marching Band will perform in the 2006 New Year’s Day parade in London.
By: Lauren Burgoon
UPPER FREEHOLD In Allentown High School band director Peter Mauro’s office, two signs greet the many students who stream into his office each day.
"London Is it in you?" The emphatic answer directly below reads, "Oh yeah, it’s in us."
The determined message doesn’t hold a candle to the excitement spreading like wildfire through AHS because of what the signs mean for Mr. Mauro and 100 of his students. If all goes according to plan, the Redbird Marching Band will ring in 2006 in merry ol’ England playing in the largest, most watched New Year’s Day parade in the world.
It’s a prospect that still has Mr. Mauro’s mouth hanging open in disbelief. After all, this isn’t just any New Year’s parade. Queen Elizabeth II sponsors the event and invited the band, with no less than an engraved invitation, to march in the London parade in an honor that only five other New Jersey high schools have received in the event’s 20-year history.
"Unbelievable. Just unbelievable," an overwhelmed Mr. Mauro said Friday. "This is really amazing. Allentown is a little school and look at this… These bands are picked because they represent the best of the United States."
The invitation to next year’s parade is even more coveted than other years because it will mark the second decade of an important British tradition, organizers said in a letter to AHS.
"The selection criteria for the 20th anniversary event are particularly stringent… Allentown’s reputation, thanks to the band’s numerous prestigious invitational performances, has spread internationally and reached the attention of the patrons of the New Year’s Day Parade London who themselves have insisted that an invitation be forthcoming to the band," parade director Robert Bones wrote to Mr. Mauro.
The band director is already hunting for some appropriate parade music. Mr. Mauro said he is looking into some traditional British songs that the band will preview at performances in town next year, plus a special selection in commemoration of both the parade’s anniversary and Mr. Mauro’s 20-year tenure as the Redbird’s band leader.
"I think we might pull out a little ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.’ You know, ‘it was 20 years ago today Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play,’" he sang.
The London experience promises to be an unforgettable time for the Redbirds. The 12th chime of Big Ben at noon on Jan. 1, 2006, signals the parade’s kickoff. At that point more than 10,000 marchers will weave through some of London’s most famous landmarks, like Trafalger Square, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey and Downing Street, and past more than 1 million people lining the route. Parade organizers estimate that another 150 million worldwide watch the event on television each year.
All that happens just on New Year’s Day. But the Redbirds plan to stay busy during the entire eight-day trip. Mr. Mauro is searching out concert venues to showcase the band and the group is looking forward to a jam-packed schedule to get a true London experience. The plan is exhaustive tour Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and Parliament, follow the Beatles’ footsteps at Abbey Road, ride the London Eye, witness the changing of the guard and much more.
Mr. Mauro has been sitting on the London news since Dec. 3, when he received Mr. Bone’s letter. He explained that he couldn’t make a move until the school board gave the trip an official nod of approval. The band cleared that hurdle on Feb. 16, where board members unanimously approved the trip conditional on a few musts, such as 50 percent band attendance on the trip, a pledge of about 60 parent chaperones who will pay their own way and the district agreeing to sponsor a school administrator to go on the trip.
The biggest challenge to meet is fund raising. An eight-day London trip doesn’t come cheap and the voyage stands to cost $1,950 per student. The band’s parents association must raise at least one-third of that before May 31 for the school to move forward with plans.
"It’s a challenge but we can do it," Mr. Mauro said. "I want to use this to show the kids that they can do this, they can save money, do chores around the house, show their parents that they can be responsible. We can do this."
The band and the parents association are planning several diverse fund-raisers, from the annual jazz concert in April to selling cheesecakes and turkeys to cleaning up roads in Millstone. Everyone also is hoping that nearby corporations will cut a few checks to ease the financial burden, as several have done in the past, and that local groups will continue to donate to the band when the Redbirds play at local events.
If there’s one group that isn’t worried about any of the obstacles to London, it’s the band members. Seven of them sat down on Friday afternoon to discuss the trip, and their excitement was palpable, especially from saxophone player Kevin Medenko, 17. He is a senior this year but is already planning to come back from college to march with the Redbirds in London. Kevin said several other seniors are considering the same move.
Other people in the AHS community are scheming to get to London too.
"A lot of our teachers are already saying they want to come," 15-year-old piccolo player Marcelle LaCroix said.
If the Redbirds’ luck holds out, the students may be marching with a special guest in London. The parade program features a student exchange where gifted British teens audition to play with an American band. AHS will find out later this school year if they were chosen as a host band and, if so, the British student will come in June to meet the band, learn the music and then march with the Redbirds on New Year’s Day.
The students said that the opportunity is amazing, although accolades are nothing new to the band. They march in dozens of events annually and have won many prizes, including awards for New York City parades marking St. Patrick’s Day, Columbus Day and von Steuben Day and the Miss America, Cherry Blossom Festival and Disney Easter parades. They also played before a distinguished audience including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.
The Redbirds will be fund-raising for London throughout the year. To contribute, send a check made out to AHS Redbirds Band Parents Association with "London Tour" in the memo line to Peter Mauro, Band Director, 27 High St., Allentown, NJ 08501.