NHS Band Once Again Marches The Green Line

Just like eating corned beef, cabbage, and soda bread, it is a tradition for the Newtown High School Marching Band to follow the green line down Fifth Avenue and entertain the enormous crowd that gathers to celebrate the largest parade in the world on St Patrick’s Day.

The band has been a fixture at the parade for more than a decade.

The band performed the first movement of “Cosmic Nights,” a piece it played at each Musical Arts Council competition last fall. MAC champions in their division, the Nighthawks were also undefeated.

Despite the parade running nearly an hour behind schedule, which pushed back the band’s step-off time and resulted in them missing the television broadcast, the group of musicians was unflustered. Both the music and marching were strong. As the band passed by 60th Street, members of the crowd commented that Newtown looked very impressive.

Patrick Stein, a freshman who is part of the “pit” percussion section that carried the banner, said it was very impressive marching past St Patrick’s Cathedral. From that view point, “You really get to see the enormity of the church,” he said.

The kids were not the only ones who soaked in the experience. It also was a day to remember for the chaperones who accompanied the band along the parade route from 44th to 88th Streets. Debbie Spanedda, a chaperone whose freshman daughter, Jen, is part of the trumpet section, said she thoroughly enjoyed the experience. She said the crowd was very supportive and people from surrounding towns yelled out they were neighbors. She also said that upon seeing the banner and realizing the band was from Connecticut, member of the crowd shouted: “Go UConn!”

“I had a blast,” she said.