For more than 30 years, the Lake Braddock Secondary School Band has shared its music with not only the community, but their country as well. Now, in recognition for those decades of sustained success, the band is being given the opportunity to bring its music to an even bigger audience: The People's Republic of China.

The band is going on a 10-day excursion to China, from March 23 to April 1, as part of a program sponsored by the U.S.-China Cultural and Educational Exchange Foundation. During the trip, the band will play seven shows at seven different venues and take part in cultural immersion sessions that includes spending a day with a Chinese family.

"This is a great chance for us to see, first-hand, that part of the world," said junior tuba player Reid Hartman. "We get the chance to soak in their culture and way of doing things and be able to come home with a greater understanding and appreciation of their culture."

The opportunity for the trip arose more than a year ago, through Band Director Roy Holder's connections to the foundation. According to Holder, a group of Chinese students from Children's Palace in Beijing came to the area last year to play a series of shows in Washington, D.C. While they were in town, they reached out to a friend of Holder's for equipment, who in turn asked Holder if he could spare anything. Holder agreed, and through that favor, the foundation's vice chairman, Dr. Song Yang, became aware of the reputation and history of Lake Braddock's band. Impressed with what he saw and heard, Yang sent a formal invitation to the school for the band to participate in the program.

Though the opportunity to play to such a vast audience excited Holder, due to financial concerns, the school was not able to commit to the trip for nearly a year and a half after receiving the invitation. According to Yang, the cost of the trip per student is $2,500, with a $500 contribution from the foundation, leaving the school a cost of $2,000 per student for all 140 members of the band. In addition, Holder said that the school wanted to investigate al of the details of the trip to ensure that if they were to commit the time and money, it was for the right reasons.

"We spent more than six months deciding if it was viable to do with high school students," Holder said. "We asked a lot of questions about finances, the trip's management, the venues and more because we wanted to make sure it would be a musical experience, not just a bunch of students roaming around China."

Once the school decided the trip would be a worthwhile experience, the itinerary was quickly fleshed out. According to percussionist Brian Hess, a 17-year-old senior, the school will be sending two different performance groups from its three bands, the Symphonic Band and the Concert I and II bands. For two to three performances, Hess said, the Symphonic Band will be playing a 1 1/2 hour show by themselves, and for the remaining five or six, the three bands will combine into the "China Band" to play as one larger outfit.

THE SYMPHONIC BAND will be playing the more formal indoor venues while the larger band will be playing outdoor venues. Because of the differing audiences, Holder said, the two groups will be playing different set lists. The China Band will play popular American songs by composers like Henry Fillmore and John Philip Sousa, and will even incorporate a rock and roll medley along with a few jazz numbers. The Symphonic Band, on the other hand, will play standard orchestral songs from composers like George Gershwin and Aaron Copeland.

Between performances, all of the students will visit cultural and historical landmarks throughout the country to expand the cultural and education benefits of the program. Hess said that the students would be visiting Beijing High School, tour the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Olympic Park and the Great Wall among other activities. In addition, on March 28, the students will be divided into groups of four and will be sent to the homes of Chinese families around Beijing to get a sense of how life is day-to-day in China for a deeper cultural experience.

"We're playing all American music," Holder said. "We've taken a wide swath of American music like jazz, rock and roll and others, but we split them up into what [songs] would work based on the venues we are playing. It's an overwhelming amount of material."

That large amount of material has the Lake Braddock Band students rehearsing at every opportunity. Hess said that preparations have been moving at a fast pace, as the Symphonic Band must learn 12 songs, and the China Band is learning 14. In addition, the members of the Symphonic Band have to learn all 26 pieces, as they will be a part of the China Band as well. Hess said that the band members came into school and rehearsed for four hours on the school's teacher work day, and that the Symphonic Band has been practicing in their regular class periods and after school.

"[The preparations] have been pretty intense," Hess said. "We have a lot of after-school rehearsals, and during teacher work day, we came in for four hours. Mr. Holder is relying on us to know our parts."

While the students are busy learning all of the new songs, they are also tasked with raising money to help ease the financial burden on the band's members and their families. The fund-raising efforts began in late August, with Glory Days Restaurant donating portions of receipts on certain days to the band program. The band also conducted 50/50 raffles at all home football games and on Dec. 10 had a large item raffle. The final fund-raising effort will come on Jan. 10, as more than 50 Lake Braddock Band alumni are giving a performance at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Center at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, from which proceeds will be donated to the trip.

Though a great deal of work needs to be done before they depart, many of the students cannot help but look forward to being immersed in a culture that is so different from their own. The experience, they said, is one that they already know they will never forget.

"Learning about their culture and seeing the differences compared to our culture will help me see things in a different light," said senior Sara Dergham, who plays the French horn. "Though learning from them is only half the experience, being able to expose them to our music and also sharing our passion for music will definitely be fulfilling."

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