St. Patrick's Day parade highlights NYC trip

Victoria Peterson - Shaler Area HS

This past March, the Shaler Area Performing Arts Department traveled to New York City for its annual spring trip. This trip fell earlier than usual because the marching band was accepted to perform in the NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade March 17. This trip has been in the works for a year.

“We knew we wanted to head to New York City to compete in PAC’s prestigious “Big Apple Classic” with our concert groups. Personally, I’ve always dreamed of having our band march in the NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade, so we began exploring the dates, and everything fell into place,” Band Director Mr. George Tepshich said.

Shaler’s entire Performing Arts Department (marching band, wind ensemble, concert band, jazz band, string orchestra, women’s choir, chamber choir, concert choir, as well as the dance team, majorettes, color guard, and drumline) participated in events during the trip. Mr. Tepshich said that all of the groups, who competed mostly against schools from New York and New Jersey, did not disappoint.

“All of our groups got first place. They did really, really well,” he said.

But the centerpiece of the trip was the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Throughout the year, the band will participate in different parades such as the Kennywood Parade and the Veterans Day Parade which takes place in Downtown Pittsburgh and any other smaller parades that pop up.

Most parades the marching band takes part in tend to be a half a mile to a mile long, making the St. Patrick’s Day parade was a very unique challenge; it is a two and a half mile long parade. That meant the marching band had a lot of training to do in order to be successful.

The marching band along with the majorettes, dance team, and color guard all practiced outside in all types of conditions with warm and cold weather, as well as rain and snow. The demanding part of these practices, which is different from a normal practice, consisted of the band marching around a parking lot or street to make sure they were well prepared for the parade itself.

“It takes a lot, to not only march, but play your instrument and do the routines. The color guard, dance team, majorettes, and everybody doing their routines for an hour straight without stopping while you’re marching two miles is pretty demanding,” Mr. Tepshich said. “So we just made sure we got up to two miles, and we practiced in all kinds of different environments.”

Luckily for the band, the weather was not an issue the day of the parade. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade was the biggest event the marching band has ever performed in with over two million spectators and thousands of performers. Everything was being broadcast by NBC with cameras marking every angle.

“It was just a really neat experience going down Fifth Avenue in New York City with all those people. It was really cool,” Mr. Tepshich said.

No matter how great the experience was, Mr. Tepshich said he anticipates doing it again, but it won’t be for a while.

“I think we’ll do that trip again at some point, but we probably won’t do it for four or five years. We try not to repeat the same trip or the same experience or the same parade in a four or five year period,” he said.

He noted that no matter how long it is between visits to New York, this trip was created memories that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

“The entire trip was a remarkable experience for both our students and staff. It brought national attention to our small town,” Mr. Tepshich said. “It was a great experience not only to do the competitions and the music part of it, but also the non-music part of it. We went to the 9-11 Memorial Museum. That was very eye opening for a lot of people. Then we got to see Aladdin on Broadway, and SUMMIT one, which is a new giant building that has an art installation and some different things. But then, the music part of it was awesome. Overall it was a great trip.”

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