“The President’s Own” United States Marine Band is one of the highest ranking bands that our country boasts. They are the only band among the military bands that does not have to complete basic training; they only have to audition and gain acceptance into the prestigious program.

On Tuesday Sept. 15, the Marine Band played at HHS. Hosted by HHS band director Daniel Upton, the band drew a crowd that created a line around the school.

“I love the marine band. I follow them around I try to go to a rehearsal a year, a concert, that kind of thing, or I see a performance at a conference. Just having them in our facility, I was really appreciative since most people don’t have the opportunity to host the best band in the world, or the opportunity to meet the conductors, not just ‘Hey how are you?’ but them really knowing who I was,” Upton said.

Upton had numerous responsibilities when it came to hosting the band. He had to coordinate the concert with the school, administration, students and faculty, as well as with the Marine Band itself. He supervised a canine security sweep and the setup of the stage itself.

This is not the first time the Marine Band has played at HHS.

“They do a tour every fall in a different region of the country and this is a region that they haven’t done in five years. Five years ago they were here, five years before that they were here, so this is the third time they’ve performed at Harrisonburg High School,” Upton said. “It’s kind of a band that needs an auditorium that holds a certain number of people, over 1000 seats. That’s why they like us; we have a nice facility with great equipment.”

The crowd filled the entire auditorium, leaving virtually no empty seats of the 1200 the room holds. Of that crowd, many members of the HHS band were in attendance.

Freshman Weston Hatfield, a drummer and saxophonist, was impressed.

“That’s one of the best bands I’ve ever seen, obviously, and it’s just really inspiring t see, like, stuff like that. To see that I could be that god at some point,” Hatfield said.

Hatfield has considered pursuing music as a career, and definitely wants to play on a drumline in college.

Because of the prestige the band holds, there are a lot of security precautions. In addition to the canine security sweep, the band closed off the entire music wing of the school after 3 p.m. that day. Upton was required to meet with a security officer a couple months in advance to go over details for the concert. Since the name includes the presidential title, security has to be more intense.

The band played music of many different style, including show tunes, standards and of course, patriotic selections.  

“It’s always cool at service concerts like that when the do the “Armed Forces Salute” at the end because you get to see all your community members  stand up and be recognized for their service,” Upton said. “There’s always somebody that I didn’t realize that they served before so I like to take that opportunity to thank them afterwards once I’ve seen that.”