By MANASEE WAGH
COURIER TIMES
As 125 students marched Tuesday down Hood Boulevard in Falls playing a lively rendition of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” heard in Disney’s “The Lion King,” traffic slowed and people leaned out their
windows to watch. It was the Pennsbury High School Marching Band, practicing outside the school despite the dampness and cold for its performances in Philadelphia and China.
The band will lead the procession Thursday at the 6ABC/Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia. The musicians wifi perform Disney tunes and two Sousa marches. The band has been a regular feature of the televised Philadelphia parade for 24 years and routinely performs at such events.
Recognized as one of the top school bands in the region, the band has won several competitions during this school year. They include the U.S. Scholastic Band Association Competition in Allentown, which it won for the second year in a row. “I’ve never seen a school that works as hard as us. The thing that’s unique is, you see the amount of work we put in and a staff that’s committed,” said Frank Mazzeo, who directs the marching band and the concert jazz band at the high school. Page Since September, band members have practiced more than two hours every day after school and several hours on weekends. Then there’s the two-week band camp at the high school in the summer, at which students practice eight hours a day.
Now the band is buckling down to face a bigger challenge.
On March 21, members will pack up their instruments and supplies and fly to Hong Kong to play at an international rugby tournament. Forty thousand people will be in the stands, while another 50 million viewers from Asia, New Zealand, Europe and Australia are expected to watch on TV, according to organizers.
Students bubbled over Tuesday with excitement about the trip.
Emily Hooven, a junior who plays the trumpet, said that preparation for the Hong Kong trip has been “more intense than anything before.” The band has taken on new musical challenges and will play “Rhapsody for Jazz Ensemble and Concert Band” at the tournament, among other musical numbers. “It’s great that we’re chosen to represent the U.S. in a foreign country” said David Diön, an assistant drum major. “We can show them we’re hard-working.”
Gov. Ed Rendell recognized band members’ achievements with a recent letter, extending best wishes to them on their frip overseas.
The invitation to perform at the rugby tournament came in March after the president of the tournament saw DVD of a Pennsbury band competition performance. Mazzeo had given the DVI) to the Hong Kong government its request and said it was “very well received.”
Organization for a trip of this magnitude isn’t easy, Mazzeo said. Those involved have to weigh every instrument, make sure 165 people’s passports are in order and worry about insurance, he said. Besides the students, 25 chaperones, 10 staff and faculty members and nine parents are going.The band has a tradition of performing at far-flung locations. When it leads the parade down Main Street in Hong Kong’s Disneyland in March, it will become the only band on the planet to play at all five worldwide Disneyland locations, which include Tokyo and Paris. “It’s a really, unique experience,” said Jonah Lustig, who plays tenor drums. “We’re going to remember it for the test of our lives;”
The band’s first and only trip to China was in 1988.
It’s no surprise to Mazzeo at the band is so successful.
“The administration totally supports the program. Twenty-five parents are chaperones and they put in lots of time,” he said. 14 addition, 175 parents and alumni who e1ong to the Instrumental Music Boosters help organize 4yents and raise money. Students sell candy and fruit snacks in school to raise funds as well.
For the trip to Hong Kong, The Pennsbury Education