Eight lucky musicians in Hilo’s St. Joseph High School Band Program will join the Hawaii All-State Marching Band in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1 next year in Pasadena, Calif.
They are Cole DeSilva, Nathan Ducasse, Fiona Follett, Koa Galves, Richard Kwon, Nicole Lee, Wendy Park and Sarina Wyrick.
The students were nominated by their band director Randy Skaggs who has been on the staff of the composite all-state band Na Koa Alii (King’s Warriors) since 2002. He has brought Big Island students to two Tournament of Roses Parades and two Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades in New York. Monthly rehearsals for the Big Island contingent started this month.
Na Koa Alii’s overall director is John Riggle, the retired band leader for Kamehameha Schools in Kapalama.
“This parade is open to only 12 bands per year and it is based upon an audition tape,” said Skaggs.
“Competition is fierce,” he said.
“Our group is so unique that we have been asked to perform without an audition,” Skaggs said.
“The greatest thing about Na Koa Alii is that it allows band members from smaller schools a chance to experience being in a parade of this magnitude,” he said. “Some of the students going from our school also went to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2011.”
The various parts of Na Koa Alii will converge in Anaheim on Dec. 26 to rehearse for the first time as a unit. Beside the five-mile Rose Day parade, the band will also play in the Tournament of Roses Band Fest at Pasadena City College, at Knott’s Berry Farm and at Disneyland.
Fund raisers are being planned and include pizza nights, a jog-a-thon and a Hawaii All-State Marching Band cookbook.
Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s band program marched in the Merrie Monarch Parade in downtown Hilo April 6. The school’s intermediate band joined the concert band for this event.
See more details on the Hawaii All State Marching Band website: hasmb.com.
