School chief: Strike up the band again to keep students engaged

Jerry Chu directs the 5-year-old Thomas J. Kenny Elementary School marching band and fifth-grader Jean Catulle (lower right). (Mark Wilson/Globe Staff)

Boston high school students may soon be marching to the beat of their own drums. Or the oompah of their own tubas. Literally.

Tucked into Superintendent Carol R. Johnson's ambitious plan to reorganize the school system is a small but splashy proposal: revive the tradition of a high school marching band in a city bereft of one for about four decades.

"I think it would be pretty exciting," Johnson said. "In a city where we have a lot of great historical celebrations and athletic celebrations, it would make us proud to have BPS students marching down the street. I believe there is enough talent in this city to make it happen."

The city would have to find just a few dozen students - out of more than 18,000 high school students districtwide - suit them up and make sure they can play their instruments while marching in synchronized steps. Sounds simple enough, but prior attempts have flopped.

In the mid-1980s, the district proposed a 200-piece citywide marching band with much fanfare and later unveiled a uniform inscribed with the words "Pride of Boston." But rehearsals were never held, and newly purchased drums, cymbals, and horns ultimately collected dust in a school closet.

The failure was blamed on the district's inability to find a committed marching band leader, according to a Globe story.

Johnson's effort to revive the idea is still at an early stage. She has not hired a band director nor has she determined a price tag, but she said it will probably require partnerships with local companies or foundations. She believes the band would probably rehearse on a field at English High School in Jamaica Plain.

Suburban band directors say costs can be staggering. Uniforms run about $350 per student while trumpets, saxophones, and clarinets cost between $500 to $1,000 and larger instruments much more. The programs rely heavily on parents.

"You have to have band parents," said Kathy Tosolini, director of arts for Plymouth schools and a former senior program director of the arts for the Boston public schools. "Parents play a tremendous role in fund-raising and facilitation of travel and performance. There is so much equipment to move and so many kids to oversee."

The history of Boston schools' once-famous marching bands is steeped in military tradition. The system quickly embraced a recommendation by the Legislature in 1863 to train boys in military drill, from rifles to bugles, and for nearly a century military corps from each high school competed in an annual parade, drawing thousands of spectators.

But tight finances and worries over traffic backups forced the parade's demise in the early 1960s, and the marching bands slowly faded away, a victim of both limited dollars and Vietnam activism that often led to suspicion of anyone in uniform, according to some accounts.

Michael Contompasis, the school district's former interim superintendent, said Johnson should be commended for wanting to revitalize the arts, which can provide life-long skills.

"Marching bands teach discipline," said Contompasis, a drummer in the Boston Latin marching band in the 1950s. "But you can't have a marching band without kids knowing how to play instruments."

A musical renaissance in recent years has been enchanting students and parents at several schools. Elementary schools, such as Beethoven in West Roxbury and Mozart in Roslindale, and a few middle schools have begun offering violin and other instrumental lessons.

And at the Thomas J. Kenny School in Dorchester, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders have been marching in local parades for about five years, tooting horns and crashing cymbals.

"Once kids see other kids playing, it snowballs," said Jerry Chu, Kenny's band director. "Marching drills take time and a lot of practice and then there are the normal challenges of running any band - making sure instruments are working all the time and buying reeds for the clarinets."

LaJuan Allen, a seventh-grader at the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School, misses marching at the Kenny and is anxious to march again.

"I've been playing an instrument a very long time and I like marching in a band," said LaJuan, a trumpeter. "Every one can see what I can do and how well I can play."

Often in a budget crisis - Boston has to cut millions of dollars - the arts are the first to go, but Johnson has vowed not to mute the music, even as she closes some schools.

"Music is a language that allows people to express themselves in ways that otherwise might not be possible,' she said. "I think that when students have really great opportunities, there is a belief these students will stay in school and be more actively engaged."