Photo By Robert W. Mitchell | United States Air Force Capt. David Regner, flight commander and conductor for The...... read more read more
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NEW YORK – In celebration of America’s 248 years of independence, The United States Air Force Band’s Ceremonial Brass from Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C., performed a collection of traditional and patriotic songs on the TODAY Show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, N.Y., on July 5, 2024.
Seventeen band members with brass and percussion instruments, a baton, and a drum major mace performed "God Bless America," the "Air Force Song," "America the Beautiful," and other tunes from a repertoire that included "Stars and Stripes Forever," "The Washington Post," "You’re a Grand Old Flag," and sections from the “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“Today we are performing on the TODAY Show to promote the Air Force and celebrate Independence Day,” said percussionist U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jacob Kight. “We are also here to show how the Air Force Band is delivering on our mission to promote excellence throughout the Air Force.”
For Kight, it is his fourth time appearing on the morning show with the band for the annual celebration. He appreciates the support from the studio staff and the energy of the live audience who gather on the surrounding city sidewalks.
“It’s always fun, it’s always a good time, the (NBC) staff are always nice to us,” said Kight. “They always support us and they like having the Air Force Band here.”
Establishing positive community relations is a main goal driving the band’s public engagement and community outreach mission, explained U.S. Air Force Capt. David Regner, the Ceremonial Brass flight commander and conductor, in a live interview with the TODAY Show hosts.
“Whenever we come out to play music, we basically try to do three things,” Regner said. “First and foremost, we want to honor our veterans and thank them for their incredible service and sacrifice to the nation. The second thing that we want to do is inspire our citizens to a heightened sense of patriotism and pride, and the last thing we want to do is connect our audiences here and all around the globe to really showcase the very best the United States has to offer.”
The performance marks more than two decades since the band first appeared on the morning show for the July Fourth festivities back in 1998.
“We have been doing this for 26 years, and this is my 25th time coming up here,” said U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Daniel P. Valadie, drum major for The U.S. Air Force Band and flight chief for the Ceremonial Brass. Valadie was a percussionist at the start of his Air Force career when the band first appeared on the show.
Valadie praised the talent and professionalism of the Ceremonial Brass for continuing to deliver excellence despite operating with only 17 of its 41 members.
“They are highly trained, highly skilled and it’s a testament to how good they are,” Valadie said. “We have been able to shrink the size of the group and still, for this particular performance today, maintain the sound quality. Everyone is top-notch.”
Valadie attributes that body of talent to an increase in the “caliber of player” the Air Force has been able to attract and retain over the past couple of years.
“We have people who were under contract with major symphonies that are in the group now,” Valadie explained. “We were actually trying to count up the number of doctorate degrees here with us today.” The final tally, he estimated, stood at about 30% of the 17 members in attendance.
Although public performances like this align with the larger Air Force mission to recruit, retain and inspire, the Ceremonial Brass is rarely afforded the opportunity to engage in community outreach events due to its mission to readily support services and ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. However, that section of the band is uniquely configured so that a contingent of musicians can make public appearances in small, outdoor venues with limited public accommodations (such as no seating) while the bulk of the members remain on JBAB ready to support ANC.
“The Ceremonial Brass was able to come and do this, and the reason is because we are portable,” Valadie said. “We can pretty much take the group out, walk out with instruments, and play. If you had the concert band that had to set up timpani, you know that would be a different story. So being portable helped us be able to do this kind of thing because we don’t need seats, we can just go in and out.”
From a strategic perspective, dispatching a smaller “portable” detachment of the band to the TODAY Show provides the Air Force a certain advantage in that it can easily travel to the location, play short, memorized music (for in-and-out commercial segments), play a full feature segment, and then participate in an interview, Valadie explained.
“It is one of those things that our commander always talks about, it’s a great return on investment because the cost of sending a couple of people up to New York and putting them in a hotel room, you can get national media coverage, get the Air Force uniform (seen), get some of the Air Force messaging or at least get some public contact out to millions of people,” Valadie said. “So that’s why we’ve been doing this. Every year, we try to reach out and kind of keep that relationship going, and they have been good enough to have us back every year.”
| Date Taken: | 07.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.12.2024 12:28 |
| Story ID: | 476050 |
| Location: | NEW YORK, NEW YORK, US |
| Web Views: | 109 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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