Army band performs, inspires at Sonic Boom

  • Published
  • By Mary M. Rall
  • U.S. Army Alaska Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON,, Alaska --  U.S. Army Alaska’s 9th Army Band performed alongside more than 2,000 Anchorage School District sixth-graders at Sonic Boom, the crescendo of the students’ first year of band and orchestra education, May 4 at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage.
Sonic Boom is the largest concert of its kind in the nation in terms of the number of elementary school performers who participate in the event, said David Hagen, a sixth-grade band teacher at Mt. Spurr, Orion and Aurora elementary schools on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
The event featured students from about 50 elementary schools from throughout the school district, who performed for an audience of approximately 6,500 people, Hagen said.
Although Sonic Boom began 21 years ago to demonstrate how robust the district’s band and orchestra programs were, ASD Director of Fine Arts Bruce Wood said the concert has endured due to the “commitment on the part of the teachers to want to showcase their students and the commitment by the district to support the arts in a very large and public performance.”
Ninth Army Band 1st Sgt. Byron Bartosh said performing the national anthem, the Alaska Flag Song and a couple of musical selections with the students at the event was a unique opportunity for the 21 Soldiers who participated in the concert.
“To do something on this scale is very rare,” Bartosh said, explaining most Army band members began their musical careers in elementary school band programs. “It reminds us all of where we started.”
One such Soldier includes Staff Sgt. Donald Gordon, who plays the baritone horn with the 9th Army Band and had the opportunity to perform at Sonic Boom with his son, Matthew, also a baritone horn player.
“It’s a great opportunity. I can’t think of many events I’ve been to with such a huge audience,” Gordon said, adding playing with his son was an additional bonus to the event.
Matthew, who attends Ursa Major Elementary School on JBER, said he was more nervous than he may have been otherwise, because he was performing with his father in addition to more than 2,000 of his peers.
“It’s shocking,” Matthew said of the scale of Sonic Boom. “I’m only in the sixth-grade, and it’s probably the biggest thing I’ll get to be part of.”
Bartosh said he was impressed with how the students performed despite what nervousness they may have felt due to the size of the event.
“I thought they did great,” he said. “I was surprised they were able to keep together as well as they did with as big of a group as they had.”
Hagen agreed with Bartosh’s assessment of the event and the students’ performance.
“If all of the songs start and end at the same time, we consider it a success,” Hagen said with a laugh.
Although Sonic Boom’s history is rooted in showcasing the district’s fledgling band and orchestra students, Wood said this year’s concert also served as an opportunity to publicly welcome the 9th Army Band to Anchorage, which relocated to JBER from Fort Wainwright, Alaska, in October.
“I did a happy dance in our office when I found out they were coming to town due to the infusion of 40-some professional musicians who would be able to perform and help our students,” Wood said.
Bartosh said the band has been overwhelmed with the response it’s received from the Anchorage and Matanuska-Susitna Borough school districts since its relocation.
“It started with Music in Our Schools Month, which led to this, and I’m sure this is going to lead to many more events in the future,” he said.
According to Bartosh, investing in school band and orchestra students and events like Sonic Boom present valuable opportunities to help ensure the longevity of military bands.
“Military bands will go away if we don’t have strong band programs,” Bartosh said, adding school programs also reinforce many of the same attributes the Army seeks to develop in Soldiers.
“A lot of the values you learn as a music student parallel the values the Army supports, such as discipline, teamwork and attention to detail,” Bartosh said.
Hagen said he hopes the students who performed with the 9th Army Band at Sonic Boom will be inspired by the Soldiers and will see what the possibilities for a band truly are.
“Our hope is that they play the clarinet, the violin, the trombone for the rest of their lives,” Wood said, adding he also hopes for a fruitful relationship between the school district, its students and the 9th Army Band for many years to come.