With St. Patrick's Parade ahead, South High's band awaits cue after 3-year hiatus

WORCESTER — When the South High Community School brass band takes to Park Avenue on Sunday, clad in marching uniforms among the dozens of participants at the Worcester County St. Patrick’s Parade, they will get to do once again what a concert band does best after many years — play live for an audience.

Led by band director Brian McCullock, the band will be back to the parade after three years of challenges — from the pandemic to the school renovations — that prevented the 53-member band from rehearsing and participating in live performances.

Worcester County St. Patrick's Parade is Sunday. What you need to know

“The reality of running a large band is it takes time to build up the momentum and inertia,” said McCullock, “and then when that was snapped away, we lost a fair amount of sort of veteran experience with graduations.

“We had to build it back up, but we're at a point now where we can keep on pushing forward and it's nice to be able to get back into the parade.”

McCullock, 37, became the school’s band director in fall 2019, first organizing homecoming performances for Worcester State University and the College of the Holy Cross.

After much preparation to participate in St. Patrick’s Parade, often considered a hallmark opportunity to perform in front of an audience for high school bands, it all went silent when the 2020 parade was canceled two days before its scheduled start because of the pandemic.

Being a band was feeling like a very distant thought for the members.

Senior Emma Robeau, a trumpet player and one of the bandleaders, was a freshman when the world shut down in March 2020.

“Before the pandemic, we were a really strong marching band,” said Robeau. “Having that year off from COVID, and then coming back with only two of the upper grades knowing how to march it was really difficult to get back into it.”

Not everything set for 2021 reprise

But even in the fall of 2021, when things were finally starting to look attuned to what the band was used to with invitations to the local college homecomings, not everything was set for the return of the band to marching.

As city schools were allowed to go back to in-person classes in the fall of 2021, McCullock said a difficult decision was made to not perform at the homecoming after more than a year of not having been able to properly rehearse in a long time as a group.

The construction of South's new high school during the pandemic made the rehearsal efforts even more dire, when the outdoor space needed for a marching band to practice its numbers was limited by continuing work.

When it was time to play at the 2022 St. Patrick’s Parade, McCullock, once again, made a difficult decision, pulling out of the event for that year.

“It's been challenging to find that rhythm and work it into what we do and just balancing the challenges of our time and the logistics of everything,” said McCullock. “I didn't feel like we were ready."

On Thursday, three days before Sunday’s parade, the band’s rendition of Dropkick Murphys’ "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" felt just right, at least to the cold ears of an audience member just walking in the middle of it.

Alixandra Coran, 17, a senior who played the flute in front of a reverberating music room with the music sheet clasped to her forearm while also simulating movement by moving her legs, praised the band for how it found focus and unity to get to a point of being good enough again for the parade.

“The upperclassmen and even the sophomores have been good leaders for the upcoming middle schoolers to show what we should be doing and what his band is like,” said Coran. “It was a big transition, but we’re right where we want to be before the parade."

Parade steps off at noon Sunday

Now that the band has found the right pitch in preparation for the parade, it will be among more than 100 participants, including 50 marching groups, about 30 floats, color guards and Melha Shriners.

The parade will start at noon Sunday and last about two hours as it makes its way through Park Avenue starting at Mill Street and all the way to Highland Street, where a food truck and beer garden will be available at the finish line near Elm Park.

Gordon Hargrove will march as the parade's grand marshal this year in recognition of his work since 1957 at Friendly House on Wall Street. He was a teenager when he first joined the social service agency, became the president at 25 and continues to help homeless families to this day.

The annual Guinness Celtic 5K road race will also be held, getting underway at 11 a.m.

For those looking for a bite, the large parking lot at Austin Liquors, 370 Park Ave., will be filled with food trucks during the parade.

Street parking to the east and west of Park Avenue are always an option, with a free shuttle running a loop through Highland, June and Mill streets from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Worcester Police Department announced detours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., suggesting that motorists use Mill Street for southbound traffic and Main Street for northbound.

Leading up to the road race, motorists traveling North on Park Avenue will be detoured onto Elm Street and will be directed around the park to reenter Park Avenue. Southbound traffic will be redirected around the park as well to reenter Park Avenue at Elm Street.

Beginning at 10 a.m. Elm Street will be closed from Russell Street to Park Avenue.

The police department will staff the parade with both undercover and uniformed police officers, who “will be on the lookout for people possessing open containers or drinking alcoholic beverages in public.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: South High Community School band back in Worcester St. Patrick's Parade