Highland junior marches with Macy’s Great American Marching Band

Tara Kildoo is not afraid to think big. Big instrument, big ideas, big results.

The Highland High junior, who attends the Career Center, found herself on the big screen – or the small one in some cases – on Thanksgiving as part of the Macy’s Great American Marching Band, a collection of high school students from around the country.

“I’ve been watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for as long as I can remember,” Kildoo said. “I did some looking into that, and I was able to do it.”

The band has been part of every Macy’s parade since 2006 and features top high school musicians from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each member must audition and be selected for the ensemble, which includes 225 playing members and nearly 300 total performers.

Kildoo was one of nine tuba players in the band. She earned her spot with a recorded performance of “A Touch of Tuba.”

She began playing the band’s largest instrument as a seventh grader at Highland Middle School, after starting out as a trumpet player. The transition was not as simple as just picking up a larger horn.

“It definitely was a switch,” she said. “I had to go from playing treble to bass clef. I learned pretty quickly, but it was definitely a big change.”

Unlike the high school marching band, which rehearses daily throughout the fall, the Macy’s band had only a few days together. Members had essentially one day – about nine hours – to put everything together.

That meant learning a complex marching drill that went far beyond walking in a straight line down the parade route, including switching from a traditional toe-first chair step to a glide step, where the heels strike first.

“The director taught us the drill, we did it quickly, then we went to sectionals, then back out to get everybody together,” Kildoo said. “It was a lot more fast-paced than Highland. The step change felt strange at first, but because we were doing it so much, my brain just switched. I got used to it pretty fast.”

Another major difference was timing. Because the parade followed a live television schedule, band members assembled for practice at 3 a.m. on parade day.

“More than half of us didn’t get any sleep,” Kildoo said.

The Granger Township resident then dealt with a rough moment after breakfast, becoming nauseated.

“When the bus finally stopped, I was one of the first ones off, and I threw up on the side of the bus,” she said. “After that, I was fine.”

Despite the setback, the experience was memorable for many reasons beyond the 2.5-mile parade, which went off without a hitch. One highlight was forming close friendships after an initially rocky housing assignment.

Originally placed with students who were hoping for a roommate they already knew, Kildoo was reassigned to a room with three strangers from Texas and Florida.

“I got put in another room with amazing people,” she said. “I became really good friends with them.”

The parade itself, which featured performers such as Busta Rhymes, Kool and the Gang, Debbie Gibson, Jewel, Lainey Wilson, Taylor Momsen and Foreigner, was a blur. Thanks to being positioned at the end of a marching row, Kildoo also received significant camera time as she passed Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Northeast Ohio native Al Roker.

“When I was actually marching, I was just purely excited,” she said. “You see people waving and all the cameras in your face. We worked so hard to get there. I didn’t want to be nervous at all.”

Participants were responsible for covering many expenses, including a nonrefundable application fee and travel to and from New York City. Because of the cost, the experience will likely be a one-time opportunity for Kildoo.

“I am allowed to do it again,” she said. “I wouldn’t have to audition, but it was definitely a one-time thing. It was expensive, and I was very lucky to be able to do it.”