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November 14, 2007

Bearcat band returns from NYC trip

By David Lazenby

dlazenby@cullmantimes.com

Cullman High School Marching Band members took a big bite of The Big Apple during a trip to New York City this week.

The ensemble that was invited to strike up the band at the Nation’s Parade held Sunday missed a different musical event because of a strike by Broadway producers and stagehands that started Saturday.

The walkout shut down 27 Broadway plays and musicals, including two shows band members planned to attend, “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Wicked.”

“We had to make some changes,” said Band Director Christopher Smith.

Although the band missed the shows, Another show became a highlight of the trip.

Smith said the band got to perform on “The CBS Early Show.”

“They came out and filmed our band and we performed a little bit for them and got to be on national TV,” said Smith. “That kind of made up for not getting to go to those musicals.”

The band appeared on Tuesday’s broadcast of the program,” Smith said. He added that CBS producers said they would send Smith a DVD of the broadcast as a keepsake.

Band members also got to be on TV during the parade that was televised in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. “We got some national exposure on this trip,” Smith said.

During the parade, Smith said the weather was chilly, but the band reception by New York denizens was anything but cold.

“I was really surprised by how the New Yorkers were so welcoming of us,” said Smith. During the parade to honor the nation’s veterans, he said many spectators offered Smith a handshake and a compliment on the band’s performance.

The trip to New York turned out to be more eventful than organizers planned. Smith said during a rest stop in Virginia, one of the charter buses used for the trip bumped into another one of the other two buses utilized.

“We had to get the windshield replaced which was kind of a complicated and difficult situation to deal with,” Smith said. “The only other traffic problems we had was the taxicabs darting all around us all the time and the aggressive New York drivers which was amazing to watch in itself.”

Along with assertive motorists, band members, officials and chaperones got to see Times Square, The Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Central Park, the Hudson River and other historic sites.

“We got to see a lot of neat stuff and a lot of things that are just totally different than Cullman and the South in general. It was a great life experience to see how different things are in a different part of the country.”

Band members also got to see some celebrities. Freshman trumpet player Jessica Heron said it was exciting to see country singer Trace Atkins, who was at the same hotel where the band stayed.

“We saw a few famous faces,” said Smith who spotted a member of the rock group All American Rejects in the hotel pool.

The band also saw something unusual, even in New York City: A pair of camels on 42nd Street.

“That’s not something you usually see in downtown New York,” Smith said.

Also during the visit to New York, the band saw a slice of Cullman County.

While visiting St. Paul’s Cathedral near Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 attacks, the 180 trip participants saw a Cullman County Sheriff’s deputy badge that Smith said was at the center of a display of memorabilia from the subsequent relief effort.

“That was really neat to see a little piece of home while we were up there,” Smith said.

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