Washington -- Half an hour before the auditorium doors opened at Mt. Lebanon High School, the Marine Band sat on stage with recording engineers, stage crew and a few others gathered around. Cars were already crawling into the school parking lot and patrons began to fill the entry area. Pittsburgh was the 29th and final city on the band’s month-long 2023 concert tour throughout the Midwest.
Beaming, one of the band’s bus drivers stepped up to the podium, and as the musicians raised their instruments, he raised his hands – hands that had so far safely steered those on stage all the way to Pennsylvania from Nebraska, and would eventually drive them back to Washington, DC the next day.
Out of gratitude for delivering the band from city to city on a charter bus, Director Col. Jason Fettig had handed him the “keys” to take the Marine Band for a spin. The band managed to get out the first phrase of “The Stars and Stripes Forever” before everyone fell into a good laugh and cheer of appreciation for his faithful service to the band on the road.
That was the theme in the moments before the Pittsburgh concert: gratitude and appreciation. In light of another successful concert tour, Col. Fettig stepped onto the podium for a moment to recognize the band’s efforts during the previous weeks.
He expressed his gratitude to the band for their consistency and musicianship night after night, and to the soloists for their diligent preparation and impeccable execution. He thanked those who had stepped into classrooms across the Midwest, holding clinics with local band programs, working directly with high schoolers and university music students. He called out the band’s recording engineers who made the band and moderators sound good in a variety of acoustically different venues, as well as the staff which worked quietly from Washington to make sure all the paperwork and promotion was in place to have concerts run without a hitch. With applause from the band, he acknowledged the stage crew for their tireless work unloading, then reloading, the truck with thousands of pounds of equipment over and over again for a month.
He then thanked Associate Director Maj. Ryan Nowlin for briefly returning to Washington, DC, during the tour, to carry on the ensemble’s main mission by conducting the Marine Chamber Orchestra during a State Dinner at the White House. He also conveyed words of affirmation to the current Associate Director as the band anticipates seeing Maj. Nowlin on the podium next year after Co. Fettig retires.
With a final round of applause and polite foot shuffle from the band, everyone took their positions for one more concert, the auditorium doors opened and people flooded in.
“After 26 years of service in this amazing organization – 18 national concert tours – it’s come down to this. I’m a little bit emotional because being out on the road with my amazing colleagues has been one of the great privileges of my life and my career,” Fettig said in his dressing room at the concert intermission in Pittsburgh.
“Sharing this historic institution, this wonderful music, with so many people from so many walks of life across this country is one of the best things we get to do every year. And to experience the joy that brings people together through music is incredibly moving, and it’s something I’m going to deeply miss. This organization is truly one of a kind, and it will be an honor to continue to cheer them on from outside for years to come.”
With that, he got up and headed to the stage one more time to conduct the concert to its close.
“This organization is truly one of a kind,” he said. That hit the nail on the head.
That must be the reason why “The President’s Own” has been allowed to tour for as long as it has.
President Benjamin Harrison recognized that when he first gave John Philip Sousa permission to take the Marine Band on tour in 1891:
“It would be tough on Washington if both of us were away at the same time. I have thought it over, and believe the country would rather hear you than see me; so you have my permission to go” Harrison said.
It’s why generations of Americans have lined up time and again to see the Marine Band perform when it comes through cities like Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Chicago, Ill.; Kalamazoo and Lansing, Michigan; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; and Pittsburgh, Pa. – all of which the Marine Band performed in in 1891 and 2023, and a multitude of years in between.
Maybe it’s why school music instructors are eager for their students to meet and learn from members of “The President’s Own” through clinics and Q&A sessions.
It’s got to be why audiences readily give the biggest applause when the band plays “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” It just hits different when it’s played by The United States Marine Band.
In all, the Marine Band traveled 4,600 miles door-to-door, performing 29 concerts in 11 states over 31 days.
“Thank you very much for all the years, for all the music, and for all the miles,” Fettig said.