2021 Reflections

On behalf of the Band Staff and the staff of MUSIC FESTIVALS & TOURS, we wanted to say thank you to all of the high school students and alumni who once again "raised the bar very high" with an outstanding and very energetic performance in the 2021 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Thank you for helping to keep the quality of performance from the MGAMB at a very high level! Congratulations!

As Ron said in his closing remarks, "We Are The Macy's Great American Marching Band!" Thank you for making the 15th Macy's Great American Marching Band very special. Your spirit, attitude, enthusiasm, and work ethic made rehearsals run quickly and efficiently and made performance day spectacular! As you look back on this experience, we hope that you can be proud of what you accomplished in just a short amount of time.

To the parents of these wonderful and talented young men and women, thank you for your support and for allowing your children to participate and providing the necessary funds for their trip. To the band directors, thank you for what you did every day to help prepare the students to get to New York. Their musicianship and preparedness was evident from your day to day teaching. To the administration, thank you for approving the trip and supporting your school's music programs. And to the community, we know that you are proud of these students. They are not only wonderful and talented musicians, they are also wonderful people! Many of you helped sponsor these young people with financial assistance, and on their behalf, we say thank you. Thank you to our older alumni who may not be in a marching band program now, but coming in prepared to be able to march, play, spin or dance at a high level.

A very gracious thank you is extended to our wonderful chaperones. Words are not enough to express our gratitude for all that you did to take care of your assigned students and duties. For those of you who returned this year, thank you for helping us provide continuity. We hope we will have the opportunity to work with you again in the near future. And a special thank you to our medical team! Not only did you guys take care of the students when needed, you pitched in and helped wherever help was needed.  In addition, a special thank you to our motorcoach drivers who transported the band safely throughout the entire event.

We also need to thank our partners for helping to make this event and band a success. Once again, the band looked fantastic in the wonderful uniforms provided by the Band Hall. Thank you for the wonderful quality that you give us with your uniforms. Thank you! Thank you to Jersey Surf Drum & Bugle Corp for providing the wonderful Mapex percussion. The Quantum Series is outstanding and great quality! Thank you Vic Firth/Zildjian for providing the mallets and sticks for the drum line and for providing those wonderful, crisp-sounding Z-Max 18 Marching Cymbals! Special thanks to Remo for providing all of the drum heads. We appreciate all that you that you do!

The 15th installment of the Macy's Great American Marching Band has continued to raised the standard for the other Macy's Bands to follow. Once again, we are all grateful to each and every one of you. We hope that this will be a memory that will last a life time! We wish you all the very best of luck in everything you do!