SAN ANGELO, Texas — Angelo State University’s band returned to San Angelo Thursday from a trip to Rome, Italy, where the group marched and performed in the 2024 Rome New Year’s Parade and Festival.
The formal invite for the Ram band came from co-founder and chairman Bob Bone visited ASU’s campus last March.
Some students who traveled had never been outside Texas, ASU director of bands Dr. Jonathan Alvis said. Third-year music major Nikki Garcia, who plays the piccolo, said she doesn’t like airplanes. But she won’t forget how she felt when the band finally made it to Italy.
“It was absolutely mind-blowing for me to be able to take what we do here in San Angelo to the other side of the world,” Garcia said. “It was an unforgettable experience, for sure.”
The band performed in front of a massive crowd in Italy. The estimated annual attendance is more than 200,000 people.
Both Garcia and Alvis said band members handled the language barrier well. Garcia said she had been practicing Italian online for months before the trip. The band was able to visit various areas of Rome and Florence, including Vatican City.
Alvis said he most enjoyed being able to give the band the chance to build unique memories overseas.
“It’s giving them the opportunity to experience something that they’ve never experienced before,” he said. “In a way – with a group of people that they know – that a lot of the people who went on that trip would never get to Rome or anywhere outside of the country unless we offered them that opportunity.”
The parade was the second recent trip overseas for the Ram band, which performed in London, England in 2019 during that year's London New Year's Day Parade.