Experience was ‘awesome’ for Maui musicians

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PASADENA, Calif. - Maui members of the Hawaii All State Marching Band were able to shake off some bitter - by Hawaii standards - early-morning cold weather and wow thousands of people lining the sidewalk during the 2009 Tournament of Roses Parade.

"In the beginning it was really cold. . . . It was freezing," said trumpet player Taylor Nakamura, a 15-year-old sophomore at Maui High School, who, along with other band members, began staging for the parade before sunrise. Later, "when the sun came up, it got a lot warmer. . . . By the end of the parade, I was sweating."

Nakamura, the son of Wailuku residents Neill and Esther Nakamura, said that the Hawaii band was positioned 19th out of the 70 to 80 units parade. The parade route covered 5 miles. About 40 members of the 320-member band were from Maui, he said.

The band played two pieces, "Tahiti Tahiti" and "Drums of the Islands," he said.

Although the march was much longer than the Maui County Fair Parade, "I thought it was going to be harder; it was not what I expected," Nakamura said.

One parent, Jere Shimomura, whose daughter Rhianne is a percussionist from Baldwin High School, said temperatures were in the 40s when band members assembled before the parade. Various news reports put the temperature in the low 50s when the parade started.

Color guard member Brenda Baldos, a 16-year-old Maui High junior, said she was affected by the cold weather in the beginning of the parade.

"It was very cold," she said. "In the beginning, I couldn't twirl my flag, but in the end it got better . . . once the sun came out."

The daughter of Danilo and Juvy Baldos of Kahului said the experience was "very overwhelming."

She said she could see how all the practice everyone put into the effort paid off in the end. "It was just really rewarding," she said.

Tuba player Shane Clark, a 14-year-old attending Kamehameha Schools Maui, said the march didn't seem as long as 5 miles.

After marching in the parade, "I didn't expect it to be that short," he said. "I thought it would be longer. On the bus ride back (to where his group was staying), I didn't even fall asleep."

Despite the cold weather, marching in the parade "was an awesome experience," said Clark, the son of Cora Clark and Thomas Keenan of Wailuku. "If I could, I would do it again."

Most rewarding was the reaction of the crowd, he said. "They were just cheering the whole time. . . . They were flying off the handle with excitement."

Maui High trumpet player Tyson Suehiro, 17, a senior, said marching in the Rose Parade will be something he can tell friends and others about in the future.

"I was a new experience," he said. "As my parents said, it's an opportunity not everyone has to get."

Suehiro is the son of Tatsuo and Nelly Suehiro of Kahului.

He said he was "pretty exhausted."

"My legs are kind of sore," he said.

Band members won the honor of joining the band after being nominated by their teachers.

"It's definitely an experience I won't forget," said Ross Ito, a 16-year-old Maui High sophomore and trumpet player. "It was really fun . . . seeing everybody try to have fun with the band, and people enjoying the music we were playing."

Ito, the son of Robert and Gael Ito of Kula, said marching in the parade came after more than 20 hours of practice by the full state band for several days before the event.

"It was interesting how they could put it all together in that short amount of time," he said.