St. Patrick’s Day is one of those celebrations that is enjoyed on many levels. Good friends, good food, good times and parades make for some of the layers of St. Paddy’s Day enjoyment. For the Centerburg Trojan Pride Marching Band, a squad of performance musicians most often seen on the football field, it was a day in which the team and the Centerburg High School Choir performed on a national stage.
The Centerburg Trojan Pride Marching Band represented their school and Central Ohio in the 262nd New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade, March 17.
The New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the longest running parades in America, with its first parade held in 1762 – 14 years before the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. The first NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade was comprised of a band of homesick Irish ex-patriots and Irish military members serving with the British Army stationed in the colonies, in New York. The marchers played pipes and marched past Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral (now the Basilica). The current route is a march up Fifth Avenue beginning at 44th Street, ending at 79th Street (about three miles) and the marchers now pass by the current St. Patrick’s Cathedral. More than 150,000 people marched in the parade this year, according to the organizers.
This year, under the direction of Centerburg band director Chuck Detmar, Anne Teschler (assistant band director and music teacher) and Staci Culbertson (choir teacher), 97 band members and close to one-fourth of the Centerburg High School student body was involved either playing in the band or singing with the choir. Both groups performed together in the parade and the choir sang at an event on Ellis Island.
Each of the band uniforms was adorned by green shamrocks on the right chest, opposite the Centerburg Trojan (on the left). They were crocheted and hand-attached by Teschler.
The band began their musical march at 11:40 a.m. at the corner of 47th Street and Fifth Avenue and its performance was televised on NBC, as one of the first bands to perform in the parade. Selections included the Centerburg High School’s fight song and "The Galway Piper,” composed by Richard Saucedo. This year’s marching band drum majors are Judith Dettmar, Jasper Faught and Madigan Kennedy.
After the parade, the band toured the Rockefeller Center area and had dinner at Ellen’s Stardust Diner. On Friday, members took a cruise to both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, where Centerburg’s Middle C Advanced Choir performed. The trip wound down with a tour of Little Italy and Chinatown, where music students had their choice of dinner destinations.
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