For the sixth time in the school’s 30-year history, Scottsdale Unified School District’s Desert Mountain High School Marching Band and orchestra will ring in the New Year in London, England.

The 68-member band, joined by its color guard, will take part in the January 1 London New Year’s Day Parade, known for its nearly two-mile route past some of central London’s most iconic landmarks, according to a press release from Scottsdale Unified School District. The parade is expected to draw an in-person audience of up to 500 thousand people and a television audience of at least 500 million.

Two days earlier, the Desert Mountain students will perform in the Parade’s Concert Series at the 200-year-old St. John the Evangelist Church in Waterloo, near the London Eye.

In the past, the Wolves had ventured to London every four years, allowing each band member to participate once during their high school years, but the pandemic upended that schedule. The group is going for the first time since school year 2018-19.

Hoisting a marching baritone for the parade will be senior Peter Cipra, one of the band’s drum majors.

“I’ve never been to London or anywhere overseas,” Cipra said in the release “To have the opportunity to explore and perform in an entirely new environment alongside some of the people with whom I’ve shared some of my most significant high school experiences is such a gift.”

Preparations for the trip began more than a year ago when the former Lord Mayor of the City of Westminster invited Desert Mountain to return to take part in the parade’s 38th edition. Band director Bryan Hummel has been planning the trip ever since.

“Memories and images of staring at Big Ben in the parade, performing gorgeous music at St. John’s Church for an eager public of concert goers, it’s a blast to be able to facilitate this kind of opportunity where students, teachers and parents can come together to make such incredible music in such incredible places,” Hummel said in the release. “Trips like these are experiences these students will remember forever.”

Hummel got a preview of the upcoming visit over the summer when he traveled to London to meet with festival organizers. He came home with an impressively long list of next steps. It takes some doing to get an organization like this ready to travel overseas. Passports must be acquired; airline tickets must be purchased; instruments, uniforms and concert wear must be packed and shipped; and new music must be learned. Then there’s the handful of orchestra members who are normally not part of the marching band who have had to learn how to march while playing their instruments.

Hummel turned to the members of the school’s dedicated Instrumental Music Band Boosters parent organization to facilitate some of those logistics.
Christine Mann, whose son plays mellophone and saxophone, handles communications for the parent group.

“Parents stepped up in extraordinary ways, contributing a wide range of skills to streamline operations,” Mann said in the release. “From packing, to collecting passports, to organizing data, and being there for the students and Mr. Hummel throughout the whole process, the Band Boosters have helped contribute to a smooth planning process.”

Despite having to tackle first-semester final exams next week, head drum major Adriana Chen said she is looking forward to being a part of Desert Mountain’s revived participation in the events surrounding and leading up to the London New Year’s Day Parade.

“I’m excited for the change of culture and to explore a place I’ve never been before and being able to see great landmarks like Big Ben and Buckingham Palace,” Chen said in the release. “As we get closer to our departure day, the trip feels even more real.”

Some shopping is on her to-do list, as well, “because I’ve heard how great London’s market environment is!”

In between the band’s Dec. 29th arrival in London, its formal appearances and its departure seven days later, the students will be busy seeing the sights. Trips to Hampton Court, Windsor Castle and its St. George’s Chapel, Covent Garden, Buckingham Palace’s Changing of the Guard ceremony and a river trip down the Thames to the Tower of London are all on the itinerary.

It will be senior Zac Gropman’s second trip to London. He traveled there six years ago, when his brother marched in Desert Mountain’s last New Year’s Day Parade.

“I remember thinking it was so cool that he was invited to perform, and it was one of the biggest things I was looking forward to when I first joined marching band in freshman year,” Gropman said. “I am so lucky to be able to march the two-mile parade route and perform in one of London’s concert halls. It will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience!”