Local Band Directors To Participate in Rose Parade
By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
PASADENA, CA
Two local band directors are set to participate in the New Year’s Day Rose Parade out west in Pasadena, California. Michelle Fritts, the director of the Cooperstown Community Band, and Paul Blake, the director of the Richfield Springs Central School band, arrived shortly after Christmas and have been preparing since.
“It was amazing,” Fritts described her first time participating in 2022. “It always is, and I’m looking forward to experiencing this again, to catch all the things that I missed the first time.”
Accompanying an animated float along the 5.5 mile route, the two will join more than 300 other band directors from across North America. The group was assembled by the Saluting America’s Band Directors project, sponsored by the Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation, based in Pickerington, Ohio.
Blake said, “Having watched this parade my whole life, I never dreamed I would ever be able to march in it. It is truly an honor.”
The band directors are marching under the theme of “America’s band directors: We teach music. We teach life.”
Fritts said, “It’s not just reading the notes, it’s not just marching down the street. It is responsibility, it is camaraderie. It is friendships.”
Blake added that, “While here I have met with amazing men and women from all over the country who do what I do,” saying the experience is “truly amazing.”
“I want everyone to know that I represent my family, my students, staff, administration and the Board of Education at Richfield Springs Central Schools,” Blake told AllOtsego. “I especially want to give a shout out to my junior high band director, Dwayne Klinko, from Waverly, New York. He made a profound difference in my life and showed me that I could become a band director. It’s the best job in the world.”
The Clark Sports Center, where Fritts is a group fitness instructor, celebrated her participation.
“If you’ve been in our fitness center this holiday season, you might have seen someone on the treadmill with a clarinet, surrounded by sheet music. This is not the newest workout trend,” their social media post said, wishing Fritts luck.
