The holidays never fail to bring people together, and the Adair County Band is a testament to this.
On Dec. 7 at 4 p.m., as always, the band will be taking part in the Columbia Christmas Parade where they will perform their fan-favorite medley of Christmas arrangements.
This year’s performance, though, will have a notable twist: alumni are invited to participate, and celebrated former band director Tim Allen is returning to direct the ensemble.
Current band director Jonathan Holmes stated, “There is a lot of love for our band program around town and we wanted to give our alumni that maybe haven’t been able to see a performance in a long time or maybe haven’t been able to be directly involved in the program a chance to come back and put their boots back on their ground, so to speak. We thought this would be a neat thing to see if there is any interest in, and already it’s been overwhelming the amount of feedback and people sharing it on social media.”
Holmes says there are numerous former band members who are planning to make an hours-long journey to be able to pick up an instrument again and perform for Adair County.
This Christmas parade marks only one of a few times the band program has opened its doors for alumni to perform in an official capacity along with the band.
In 2009, alumni were able to join the band when they marched as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. But since then, graduates have mostly been on the sidelines.
“It’s going to be a learning opportunity for me this time. This is really the first time I’ve done a full on alumni parade group,” says Holmes. “But one thing we are going to do is we are going to rehearse the day before, that evening. So everyone that is participating will be able to come and we will put them in a formation and we’re also going to work in the band room on music. We’re also sending out all the music and all the repertoire anybody is going to need to prepare for it. So a lot of this is actually going to happen before they even come… A lot of the alumni that are performing have already reached out asking for music or how to acquire an instrument, so that makes me feel really good. I can tell everybody wants to bring their A-game and be really professional and make the program look good.”
This year’s parade performance comes on the heels of the Adair County Band placing fifth in state last month. With band performances, most of them take place miles away, so Holmes hopes the parade will allow the whole community to see the group in action.
“I just want to tell everybody thank you for your support. I hope everybody will come out and see the band and cheer us on,” Holmes says.
For those who want more Christmas cheer from the group, concert band will be having their Christmas concert only days after the parade. The concert will be held on Dec. 15 in the middle school gym at 2 p.m.
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com
