GREENSBORO, N.C. — On New Year’s Eve, Brian McMath and Northwest Guilford High School’s Viking band won’t be playing Auld Lang Syne. They’ll be marching to a different tune.
“We're marching from the Castel San Angelo, which is the town square outside the Vatican and we're marching into the Vatican European Style. What I'm hearing is that crowd people may join in with you and just process with you in. So that would be kind of cool," said Brian McMath, the band director.
One of North Carolina’s own will be playing for the Pope on New Year’s Eve.
“I thought this would be school marching band, we’d do shows or football games but I really did not expect to go to Rome. I think, again, it’s really amazing opportunity," said Riley Cassidy, a senior at Northwest who has been a part of the band all four years.
“This is the jubilee year for, it's a pilgrimage in the Catholic faith to go. So they're expecting about 25 million people potentially around that area while we are there," said McMath.
McMath, who has been the band director for over 20 years at Northwest, has had an illustrious and decorated career with the band, but the trophies on the wall and multitude of performances can’t hold a candle to what it's truly all about.
“My plan, my goal always is to offer this opportunity of a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience. And because I've learned many years ago by doing trips that it opens up their worlds and that's what it's really about,”
Sure, playing at the Vatican is a tremendous honor –
“I’ve been doing this for four years and I love this band so much and to get to do this with them is a great way to close out my time,” Cassidy said.
But to be cliché, it’s about the journey for the students not just the destination.
“If we're going to be better humans, then we have to see the way the world actually works and what's right and wrong with it. And the only way you truly do that no offense to any other teacher, but it's not in a textbook," said McMath.
That experience may not be in a textbook, but on New Year’s Eve, it will certainly be located in Vatican City.
The 85 students will head out on December 27th with select family and friends. They will perform renditions of "Sweet Caroline", "Celebration", and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" for the people of Italy.