More music tourism news, but this time, from my alma mater.
The Santa Monica High School marching band will be marching over the Atlantic to London, England in 2009, ringing in the new year by performing in the city’s holiday parade.
The 130-member marching band and colorguard will head to perform in the New Year’s Day Parade in London, the entertainment unit’s first trip out of the country since the 1960s when it performed in Mazatlan.
Besides performing, the band will spend the eight-day trip seeing the sites in England.
With the opportunity to travel abroad and spend a week away from home, the number of band and colorguard members is expected to increase next year.
“Of course with that kind of excitement, it (will help) the recruiting,” said Terry Sakow, the director of bands at Samohi. “More kids will want to do marching band, so we might have a slightly bigger band next year.”
The trip is expected to heighten visibility for the 92-year-old high school’s marching band program, boosting recruitment, especially if the trips become a regular feature for the award-winning program.
“Obviously it adds to the reputation to play overseas,” Sakow said.
The parade’s organizing committee contacted the band director in September to extend an invitation to perform in the 22-year-old parade whose route travels along some of the city’s most famous sites, including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Piccadilly Circus. The committee learned about Santa Monica High School’s marching band thanks to Gary Locke, the long-time band director at Riverside Community College that endorsed the Viking marching band.
