Lake in the Hills band director selected to march in Tournament of Roses Parade

LAKE IN THE HILLS – Band Director Jake Walker, age 24, marched in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA on Jan. 1. Representing his students at Martin Elementary School, Walker played trumpet in the Saluting America’s Band Directors Marching Band. 

Walker was selected to perform in the Roses Parade’s first ever band director marching band and float beside 270 other band directors from across America and Mexico. Together they performed an original arrangement by Ohio music composer Lisa Galvin of Meredith Wilson’s “Seventy-Six Trombones,” according to the Roses Parade website.

“The parade is one of the biggest and most honorable parades pretty much in the world because of the amount of people who show up,” Walker said. 

The Saluting America’s Band Directors Marching Band formed in honor of The Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation, Walker said. The foundation was founded in 2017 to support the arts in and around the Pickerington and Central Ohio area to remember Pickerington Band Director Michael D. Sewell, according to the band director salute website. 

Sewell influenced music educators and students around the area and around the country, Walker said, so Sewell’s wife put together a band director marching band to honor him and the work he did; The Roses Parade approved the band.

Walker said the application process required him to essentially submit an audition. He said he had to talk about his teaching experience, his performance opportunities and teaching endeavors, as well as who influenced him throughout his career.  

“I found out two or three months after I applied. I got a notification that I was accepted, which was a really special moment because I never imagined getting to march in this parade,” Walker said. 

Walker said he marched to represent his students and his first band director Brad Heddinger at Belvidere South Middle School, as well as his band director Dan Foster at Belvidere Highschool and his professors at Northern Illinois University.

“Those directors always believed in me. They gave me a lot of really awesome opportunities and because of [Heddinger and Foster], that’s what really fueled me to want to major in music,” Walker said. 

The event lasted four days, and leading up to the parade the participating band directors attended Band Fest, Walker said. At Band Fest, marching bands and performing groups for the parade put together a concert at a local community college and performed the act they would soon play on Jan. 1. Thousands of people attended, Walker said. 

Participants were able to attend the Float Fest too. The Saluting America’s Band Directors Marching Band won the Showmanship award for their float entry, Walker said.

Walker said he’s very grateful for the overall experience because it’s something many people hope they get to do at some point in their life.

“This is my third year teaching, but for some people they went their whole career and they finally got an opportunity to march. For someone who is as young as me to get that moment to do it was really awesome,” Walker said.

Walker said this was a bucket list item he was finally able to check off.

“I’m very fortunate that I had that moment and hopefully I could do it again someday, but I know that if it doesn’t happen again I’m grateful for that chance I got,” Walker said.