UMass Marching Band chosen to play in 2024 Macy’s ParadeDate: 11/13/2023 AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts Amherst Minuteman Marching Band has a year to get ready for a most prestigious gig, the 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The band will make its second appearance in the historic New York City holiday event, having marched in the 2013 parade, under Band Director Timothy Todd Anderson, who is now celebrating his 13th year leading the marching band.
As Anderson explained, the consideration process for selection involves many steps.
“Every band wanting to be in the Macy’s Parade has to apply,” he said. “In our case, we sent in an application explaining the band history, kind of a resume of what you’ve done of importance, kinds of high-profile events which in this case we said we were in this parade in 2013.”
Letters of reference also went along with the band’s application package and Anderson said they received some enthusiastic backing from influential members of the community.
“It was very cool, the Amherst area legislators went to bat for us,” he said. State Rep. Mindy Domb (D-Amherst) and state Sen. Jo Comerford (D-Northampton) both submitted letters of support talking about how much the band means to them, to Western Massachusetts and to the commonwealth as a whole.”
Anderson said he was notified that the band had been selected for next year’s parade in late spring but the news was kept under wraps for a while.
“We kept it on the down low because we wanted to, I didn’t want to just send out an email to the students saying this was happening,” he said. “And Macy’s likes to do a special presentation of it, they want this to mean something.”
Working with Macy’s officials, Anderson was able to arrange the announcement during the halftime show during a home football game on Oct. 7.
“It worked out perfectly,” he said, “It was High School Band Day.”
With 2,400 high school seniors in the stands, Anderson said they couldn’t have had a better audience.
“We can now say to any of those high school seniors, if you come to UMass next year and be in our band, you can do this,” he said.
On hand for the news were Chancellor Javier Reyes and Macy’s Representative Jim Maher, who revealed the commemorative Macy’s drumhead and presented a $10,000 check towards the band’s fundraising efforts.
Anderson said the excitement following the announcement continued on into an extended halftime and even after the band members retreated back into the stands for the game’s third quarter.
“Band members took selfies with the Macy’s logo and the chancellor,” he said. “It was completely celebratory.”
Anderson said between now and next year at this time, there is much to be done.
“A lot of it right now is in the planning stages,” he said. “We just had our first meeting with campus officials about how we’re doing this and putting together the idea for the trip.”
In between home football games there will be marching practice, a lot of marching practice, Anderson said.
“It’s (the parade) about 90 minutes to an [hour and 50 minutes] of continuous marching, so a lot of it is just the endurance, the physical build up,” he said. “It’s not like you take a break, you finish one song and drums play a roll off and you start the next one.”
Anderson said the 90-minute band practices will likely mean 90 minutes of marching to start.
Music selection for the parade is also still in the works as Macy’s officials are informed of the band’s set list. But not everything is up to the band as parade planners do have input.
As for the size of the marching band expected to make the trip next year, Anderson said it’s likely to be larger than the current 340 members.
“I expect it’s going to be much bigger next year because of this,” he said.
Managing that large a number is heavily reliant on student leadership, Anderson said.
“That for the most part has kept us going.”
Macy’s first New York City parade took place in 1924, meaning Anderson and the band will be helping celebrate the event’s 100th anniversary. There were suspensions of the festivities during World War II to conserve needed materials.
The 98th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is set for Nov. 28, 2024, in New York City.
|
