Colony High duo picked for Macy’s Great American Marching Band

PALMER — Two students from Colony High School have been selected to represent Alaska in Macy’s Great American Marching Band, which will perform in the 2011 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Nov. 24 in New York City.

Colony High School clarinet players Gina Aki and Ryan Brehmer will join student musicians selected from the other 49 states for a unique opportunity to perform in the 85th installment of this famous parade.

Macy’s created the Great American Marching Band in 2006 to provide an opportunity for students to participate even though their whole band programs can’t travel to New York, according to Wesley Whatley, creative director for Macy’s Parade and entertainment group.

“This is an elite ensemble featuring high school band students selected from each state in the union and the District of Columbia,” he said. “We’re so excited we have some talented Alaskans.”

Colony High band director Jamin Burton recommended Aki and Brehmer for the opportunity. And a panel of university music professors selected students based on a review of their audition recordings and applications.

But it was Aki who got the ball rolling after she came across information online about the audition process. And she said she didn’t want to do it alone, so she asked her friend Ryan Brehmer to also audition.

“I’m really excited,” she said. “It’s kind of always been my dream to go.”

And for Brehmer, too, he said. “I’ve always wanted to go, but I didn’t know that there were tryouts.”

The two each prepared a solo piece and recorded it in March for their audition. Brehmer said they found out in May that they had both been selected.

“We’re really excited that we were both picked to go,” said Aki, a senior at Colony High.

Only then did the two begin to worry how they’d pay the associated $1,400 fee, plus afford the airfare from Anchorage to New York.

Since neither student’s family could afford the cost, the two set to work to earn their way. All summer they spent Saturdays and some Sundays playing music for tips at the Anchorage Market and Festival.

“We spent hours there each day, playing and hoping for tips,” said Aki.

The earned about $700 in tips, which they split, she said. And they have found part-time jobs to help pay for part of the costs, too, Aki said.

“Birthday money, Christmas money — everything in our little piggy banks has gone toward this trip,” she said.

Now they’re just counting the days — 38 — until they board an airplane at Ted Stevens Anchorage International bound for LaGuardia, said Brehmer, a junior at Colony High.

“It’s going to be pretty awesome,” he said. “I can’t wait.”

Whatley said students travel to New York the week before Thanksgiving and will participate in several days of intense rehearsals.

In their down time, he said students will go to Broadway shows, see the Rockettes, see some of the sites of New York and learn about leadership.

Students also will be fitted for special uniforms for the Great American Marching Band and enjoy an end of the week banquet before the fun culminates with the Thursday morning parade, Whatley said.

This will be Aki’s second trip to New York City and Brehmer’s first, he said.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time rehearsing, but we’ll have some time to go see the sights, too,” Aki said.

This week, the music was posted online for musicians to download and begin memorizing, she said. The Great American Marching Band will perform two pieces: “Disco Inferno” and a second piece arranged for the band that they will perform in Harold Square for television broadcast.

Both Aki and Brehmer say the plan to minor in music in college and are looking forward to the push performing at this level will provide.

Whatley said more than 50 million viewers from across the country are expected to watch the parade on television and more than 3.5 million spectators are expected to line up along the streets of New York City to share in the world-famous kickoff of the holiday season.

He said more than 8,000 people will participate in the two-mile long parade, including Macy’s employees, their families, celebrities, athletes, clowns, dance groups and some of America’s best marching bands

“This is a once in a lifetime thing,” Brehmer said.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.