Courtesy Photo | New York Army National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 42nd Infantry Division Band’s...... read more read more
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CAMP SMITH TRAINING SITE, New York—Nine members of the New York Army National Guard’s 42nd Infantry Division Band will spend July 3rd in Jerusalem playing pop standards at an Independence Day reception hosted by American ambassador Thomas Nides.
The Soldiers – eight musicians and a sound engineer—are one of several musical performance teams, known as MPTs in band-speak, which perform independently of the 40-Soldier concert band.
“Most of our songs are pretty much classic American pop tunes,” said Staff Sgt. Drew Gansz, the non-commissioned officer in charge of the rock band MPT.
“We will be performing iconic tunes from artists ranging from Elton John to Bruno Mars, “ Gansz said.
And they are ready to do requests as well.
“We’re essentially a wedding band, “ Gansz joked. Their goal is for people to have fun, he explained.
The reception, held at the Israel Museum —the country’s most important archeological museum— will be the American Embassy’s annual celebration of the 4th of July.
The ensemble’s been told to expect American military personnel, U.S. and Israeli government officials, members of Congress and perhaps even Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gansz said.
The ensembles members said they are excited about their musical mission.
“I feel grateful that the 42nd Division Band was invited to perform overseas,” said Sgt. Mallorie Meyer, a French horn player and singer, and music teacher in civilian life. “Experiences like this are a huge reason why I chose to join and continue to serve,” she added.
1st Sgt. Leslie Saroka, a clarinet player and the 42nd Band’s senior enlisted leader who deployed with the band to Iraq in 2005, said he was looking forward to visiting another country and experiencing another culture.
“This is a great honor to be able to provide music in this setting,” Saroka said.
The New York National Guard is in the embassy entertainment business because of the bi-lateral relationship the New York National Guard has with Israel’s Homefront Command, according to Major David Myones, the New York National Guard’s State Partnership Program coordinator.
The embassy normally asks for an active-duty band for this annual event, Myones said. In 2022, there was no active military band available, so the embassy staff reached out to the New York National Guard.
A week out from July 4, there was no time to respond, Myones said. But New York officials told the embassy they would be interested with more lead time, he said.
This year, the Central Command Band said no to the embassy staff in March, and so they turned to New York, Myones said.
“We were able to support with 90 days-notice because we are going to be doing it cost effectively,” Myones said.
The band’s annual training event – a week of rehearsals and a week of playing weeklong performance tour across New York—was already scheduled for that period, he said. And the New York Air National Guard’s 105th Airlift wing was able to provide transport on board on of the wing’s C-17 Globemaster III transports.
So, while most of the band plays concerts in Seneca Falls, Lewiston, and Tonawanda, Gansz and his ensemble will travel to Israel and perform there.
Bands have a long history in the military.
Bands played music to help soldiers march in step when heading into battle, and to keep their morale up. When the battle started, musicians turned into stretcher bears, bringing the wounded to medical stations.
The 42nd Infantry Division band traces its history back to World War I when the division formed from National Guard units of 26 states. That was when it earned it’s “Rainbow” nickname because the division reached across the United States like a rainbow, according to its chief of staff, Douglas McArthur.
During World War II, the band followed the combat troops of the division as they captured the German cities of Wurzburg and Schweinfurt and liberated the Dachau concentration camp.
In 2004 and 2005 when the division headquarters deployed to Iraq, the band played in dining facilities across north central Iraq to raise morale and performed at events with Iraqi officials. And when they weren’t playing, band members checked passes at the division main headquarters as a security element.
The rock band learned about the mission in mid-April, Gansz said, and they have been getting ready by rehearsing and deciding what they will play. They have 28 songs they plan to play and 40 they can pull out if asked, he said.
He’s been working to arrange the music so they can cover the songs with their smaller group, Gansz said.
The group will have six days to rehearse at their Camp Smith studios before heading to Israel on June 30.
His musicians are a talented group, Gansz said. Almost all of them have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in music, two are high school band directors, and everyone else teaches and performs privately in their local music scenes.
Gansz performs as a guitar player when he is not working as the online marketing director for a Manhattan vintage guitar shop boutique, TR Crandall Guitars.
Being in an Army band gives musicians the opportunity to serve their nation, bring pride and give thanks to service members and their families all through doing what they love most, performing music, Ganz said.
“A little fun fact, and widely unknown, is that the U.S. Army is the worlds’ largest employer of full-time musicians,” Gansz said.
Bandsmen take their role of being ambassadors for the Army very seriously, Gansz said.
“It is one of the greatest feelings to invoke joy and pride in somebody who experiences your performance and gains inspiration from it,” he added.
Sgt. James Yoon, the keyboardist, and singer on several songs said that playing for an internal audience makes it even more rewarding.
And Spc. Matthew Levine, a woodwind player, and graduate music student agreed.
“It will be fun to represent both New York and the United States by playing music for our brothers and sisters overseas,” he said.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2023 14:14 |
| Story ID: | 447054 |
| Location: | CAMP SMITH, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 69 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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