School News

Diem selected to perform in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

by Emmet Jamieson
Jenna Diem, a music-loving individual and member of the PAHS band, stands in front of a mural honoring the band. (Photo by Emmet Jamieson)

From a square in the middle of the skyscrapers, below the enormous balloons in Garfield and Snoopy shapes somewhere in that bustling, sprawling city home to millions and millions, beautiful music hums its tune up toward the far-off sky. It flows from the bells of clarinets and saxophones and trumpets and bursts from the methodical strike of wooden stick on Mylar drumhead. The band plays as if the world is watching - and it is. And somewhere in the lilting melange of melody, in that vast crowd of metal and wood, stands a certain student from Punxsutawney playing her heart and soul out with the rest.

On November 28th, 2019, which is Thanksgiving Day this year, PAHS sophomore and band member Jenna Diem will be playing her mellophone (a French-horn like brass instrument) in the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City as a member of one of the parade’s marching bands. In the parade, she says, she will join the rest of the marching band (which consists of around 200 people) and the parade itself on a three mile march through Manhattan toward Herald Square, the location of the Macy’s flagship department store, where the band will assemble and play more songs up on stage for a show that Diem likens to a football game halftime show.

Participating in the Macy’s parade is definitely no small honor - as both the largest Thanksgiving parade in America (8,000 participants) and the most watched (3.5 million people watching in person, 50 million watching on TV), the parade is highly regarded and is a staple of the Thanksgiving tradition in many households. The esteem and fanfare that the parade generates mean that earning a spot as part of the celebration is not easy. Diem found out about the opportunity to play in the Macy’s parade from a friend from Philipsburg who had participated in the parade the year prior. A music lover and skilled mellophone player, Diem wanted badly to play in the parade, but she was not entirely sure that she could make it in. Her friend pushed her to try out, however, and she did. According to Diem, the application process was quite involved and required her to prove her aptitude both as a mellophone player and a marcher.

“They have an online application process,” she said, “and you have to submit two main things: a video audition of you playing a piece that shows your strength and range and then a video of you marching using several different drill commands. They will look at the videos and if you fit their standards, they will choose you to play in the band.”

Diem prepared the required materials for the judges to examine and submitted her application in March, and she received notice that she would be playing in the parade in early April. Diem admits that she did not expect this outcome, but she holds that she is nonetheless ecstatic about playing in the parade alongside so many other skilled musicians.

“I’m excited,” she said. “I didn’t think I was going to get selected! I don’t think that it’s really going to hit me that I’m going to be performing in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade until I get there, but I am so excited to perform with so many people from across the country.”

Thanksgiving and the parade are a long way off, but in the meantime, Diem says that she will have to prepare before she is ready for the big day. She has not yet received the music pieces that she will be performing in the parade, but once she receives them, she will have to master and memorize them. Also, she says that she has to get herself ready to march the long three miles that she and the band will cover during the parade, fill out paperwork, and submit some additional payments.

When Thanksgiving comes and the floats and giant balloons begin to fill the streets of New York, their gaudy oranges and yellows and reds showing off the colors of the season and the burning passion in Americans’ hearts for the holiday, remember that there will be a piece of Punxsy somewhere in the procession of those expert musicians and performers. She will be proudly marching in the midst of it all, lips pursed at the mouthpiece of her mellophone and her soul pouring over with music, and she will be proving both herself and her musical abilities in front of the entire world.