ALBERTVILLE, Ala. — There's music and excitement in the air as Albertville High School's Aggie Band begins practicing for not only football season but for the 2024 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California.
This week an instrumental person paid a visit to the school.
Tournament of Roses President, Alex Aghajanian, who is no stranger to the school's award-winning program, met with students to share excitement ahead of the Rose Parade.
Andrew Reyes, an 11th grade student at Albertville High School, and a member of the Aggie Band, shares, "it's an amazing opportunity that I can't wait and you know even greater that I can go to California with all my best friends and get to play music and just that's something that there's no other way I'd have a chance in my life to do something like that."
He plays the trombone for the marching band and will soon join his, approximately 350 band-mates, in a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform during the 2024 Rose Parade.
Dr. Taylor Cash, Director of Bands with Albertville High School says, "most of our students have never seen the ocean, much less flown all the way to California."
A parade the school's band program is no stranger to as they've performed there in 2011 and again in 2018, with a style of music that's unforgettable.
"Their style of music, their zest for what they do, their performance that they do. It's very special. They have a very unique rhythm to them for what they do. And so that's all the things that we looked at and what brought me back to them...And because of that history, I knew they would deliver," Aghajanian said.
This year's theme, "Celebrating a World of Music."
"Music is a universal language that all can celebrate. We may not speak the same language, but we communicate through music no matter what style of music you like," Aghajanian said.
Reyes adds, "you feel with the music, it feels very like personal. It kind of feels like a part of yourself...you're getting to express yourself in a different way that you can't normally."
20 bands from all over the country and around the world, performing music in unity.
"If you're sitting next to the Costa Rica band and you're from Albertville, you may not speak spanish, but you can communicate with them through this theme," Aghajanian said.
Dr. Cash says they don't have their music finalized yet but one thing is for certain, they'll entertain the crowd.
"We want to play music that people enjoy. We like to play music that people can sing along with us and be engaging and interactive."
All while learning that hard work pays off.
"We're able to use music to teach them a lot of life skills. We like to talk about a lot more than just music, and we like to grow people and through music. So we want to help create better adults for the world," Dr. Cash said.
Reyes can't wait for this trip of a lifetime, "getting to be in something that's so big and important that…people all over the world are going to get to see… that's a massive deal. It's just I'm very proud that I get to be a part of that."
Now it's going to cost around $3,000 per student to bring them out to the parade and around $1-million in total. So they'll be fundraising throughout the year for this.