605 All Star Band prepares for 2025 Rose Parade
John Glenn High School band director Frank Hinojoz leads a rehearsal. (PHOTO BY ALEX DOMINGUEZ)
NORWALK – The high school bands of Norwalk La Mirada Unified School District will join with those of ABC Unified to represent the schools residing along the 605 Freeway at the 2025 Tournament of Roses Parade.
Consisting of over 400 students from Mayfair Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Gahr, John Glenn, La Mirada and Norwalk high schools, the ensemble – now known as the 605 All Star Band – was the concept of Mayfair High School’s band director Tom Phillips, who recently told the Press-Telegram that it had been a dream of his to march in the annual parade before his impending retirement in 2025.
“Tom Phillips, the band director at Mayfair High School is the one who contacted us all,” said Frank Hinojoz, band director at John Glenn. “He has the same dream as most of us have, and that’s to take our band to the Rose Parade.”
There was just one problem: size.
“It’s all about size, to be perfectly honest,” said Hinojoz. “It’s quality, but it’s also about size. The pandemic affected us all really bad, and so we knew he couldn’t get in by himself, and he knew he needed some help.
“He contacted us, the other seven high schools from Norwalk La Mirada Unified and the ABC District, and of course the Bellflower District that he’s a part of, and said ‘Hey, can we make this happen?’ And so, that was it. We all got on board, started rehearsing and everything else, and here’s where we’re at today, we got in.”
Due to the scope of its coverage, Hinojoz said that marching in the Rose Parade is “the biggest thing for band out there.” He marched it himself in 1989 as part of the Tournament of Roses Honor Band during the 100th celebration.
“I remember the excitement about it all, the work that you had to put in to do it because it’s five miles long, almost six, which is really intense,” said Hinojoz. “It’s like one of those things, like I said, especially after you’ve done it, you’re like, ‘I want to do this with my band.’”
Rehearsals are primarily done separately, including both musical practice and physical conditioning. All schools did come together to record their audition.
Robert Stearns, director at La Mirada, spoke on the collaboration between each director, saying it’s “been fun, but a lot of work.”
Members of the La Mirada High School band during a rehearsal. (PHOTO BY ALEX DOMINGUEZ)
“Coming together is really nice just because on any given day at a school, I’m the only band director here so I don’t have seven other people to confer with who are on the same thought process as me,” said Stearns. “So, it’s really nice to work with the others. We’ve divided up roles, and ever since we got in we’ve had regular meetings now just to talk through the details, because it’s a lot of students that we’re going to be dealing with so we want to make sure we have all our details right before we actually start announcing everything and coming up with rehearsal plans and stuff like that.”
Overall, students seem eager for the opportunity.
“They are excited,” said Stearns. “I don’t know if it’s actually hit them yet, as ‘this is real’ because it’s so far away…We talk about it little by little, and they’ll kind of look up and go ‘Oh, this is really happening,’ so they’re excited about it.”