Whitewater Festival. Crown Imperial. Prelude and Fugue. Pachelbel’s Canon. Lest We Forget. America the Beautiful. Recessional. Pomp and Circumstance. These are the songs Bolles Band members hear and play each graduation.

The paper graduation folders are passed out the day after the Spring Concert. The band spends the month of May teaching the music to the freshmen and refreshing the upperclassmen’s memory of how the pieces are supposed to sound.

This is a strange time for seniors. It is a time of realizing that the end of our high school careers is in sight. Even I teared up a little when I heard the band play Pomp and Circumstance from the art gallery for the first time. (It is tradition that the seniors get to be dismissed early while the rest of the band practices “Pomp and Circumstance” and “Recessional” without them.)

“It’s just kind of bittersweet,” Leah Scott ‘17 describes. “It feels like I’ve come full circle. Like I remember Mrs. Vance saying that everyone needed to get white and khaki for graduation and then it hit me that this was really it.” Scott has played trumpet in the band since middle school.

Isabella Array ‘17 also speaks about how hearing the music makes her feel. “I’m happy that I’m graduating and the graduation music reminds me of how much my classmates and I have accomplished. It signifies the end of one chapter and the beginning of a new one.”

“But at the same time,” Array continues, “I’m very nostalgic because I know that this is the last time that I’ll ever play the music and the last time I will ever play with the band.” Array has played flute in the band for 7 years.

For the freshmen, seeing the graduation music for the first time is a new experience. As the newest members of the band, they must learn the music and prepare for the fact that they will be playing without the senior members of the band. Hayden Coddington ‘21 explains, “Hearing the music that I’ve heard on so many different occasions is an enlightening experience. I’ve seen so many of my friends walk across different stages across the country and collect their diploma, and to have the opportunity to play their famous send-off is an amazing thing to me.”

I have played in the Bolles Band for 6 years and am grateful to have been a part of graduation ceremonies for my entire high school career. It’s always sad to watch fellow band members leave, and it’s mind-boggling that it’s now time for me to graduate as well. I know that I will always remember participating in this Bolles tradition during my career at Bolles.