District News

The Bernards High School Marching Band was quite active throughout the greater Somerset Hills communities this spring. On May 25th, they supported Bernardsville and Bedminster by participating in the Bernardsville Memorial Day Parade and sending students to Bedminster to march in their parade. That morning, twenty-one BHS students and their four directors arrived early to practice their cadence and music in parade formation. Then they joined the parade procession from High School Lane at Bernards High School to march in the drizzle that punctuated a rainy holiday weekend. They performed with respect and precision, a collection of military marches that included "The Marine's Hymn", "When the Caissons Go Rolling Along", and "Anchors Aweigh" as they followed the parade route to the Bernardsville Fire Company and First Aid Squad. To remember our fallen heroes, a ceremony was held with BHS Drum Major Jack Cohen performing Taps for the last time in his high school career. It was evident that gathering together to show pride and honor for the military lives lost, is something that is still cherished by many residents of this community.

On May 30th, the Marching Band showed up once again for their communities, providing cheer and support for the residents of Matheny hospital and school, located in Peapack-Gladstone, at their Miles for Matheny fundraiser. This annual event, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, features a 5k trail run/walk, an obstacle course for children, games, food, fellowship and more! It was at the finish line of their ever popular Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk, that the Marching Band was enthusiastically providing music and Matheny spirit! As the residents completed a lap around a trail connected to the facility, the band played tunes such as "Let's Go Team", "Iron Man", "Hey Song", "Land of 1,000 Dances", "Runaway Baby", and "The Force Theme from Star Wars.” The event was clearly a success, because in addition to the money raised, it accomplished something much  more important… connecting people through activity and music… and more than the miles, were all the SMILES! 

“I am so proud of our BHS musicians for their spirit of volunteerism and eagerness to perform music for the good of all around them,” shared Band Director, Stephen Taesler.

Special thanks to the following students and staff who were part of the Memorial Day Parade and Matheny event (an asterisk denotes they attended both): *Stephen Taesler, Band Director; *Allyssa Jurgens, Technical Director; Jason Snyder, Assistant Director; Rachael Taesler, Colorguard Director;  Treysy Perez Gonzalez on Flute; Chaeyeon Song on Flute; *Vedaant Vasandani on Flute; *Future Drum Major Cameron Bong on Alto Saxophone; *Hailey Ferrante on Alto Saxophone & Colorguard; *Jonas Apostolakos on Tenor Saxophone & Crash Cymbals; *Drum Major Jack Cohen on Trumpet; *Field Captain Evan Schwartz on Trombone; *Percussion Captain Lucian Spiteri on Quad; *Future Percussion Captain Connor Kochis on Snare; Eduardo Sebastian Orellana-Chinchilla on Bass Drum; *Gavin Barry on Bass Drum & Electric Bass; Julia Nigro on Crash Cymbals; and members of the Colorguard: *Ava Bennewitz, Sam Struble, Emma Chrapowicki, *Ariadna Morales Quintana, * Drum Major Christina Rekatas, Alicia Reynoss, *Ella Sgro and *Clare Spiteri.