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Jamestown native to perform in inauguration parade

Erik Lundquist

A 2009 Jamestown High School graduate and member of the United States Air Force is expected to play an important role in the Inauguration of the President-Elect Donald Trump on Friday.

Erik Lundquist was awarded a position playing the euphonium in the premier group over the summer, and after completing basic training, made his way to the Washington D.C. area for his assignment. As part of his duties, Lundquist said he will perform in the parade, and the band will pass in front of the President’s Reviewing Station.

The band also performs for full honors funerals at Arlington National Cemetery, arrivals for foreign national dignitaries, the Pentagon, the White House, Airforce Memorials and flight arrivals at Andrews Air Force Base.

As part of the Inauguration festivities, Lundquist said he and his band mates will also perform at a concert at the Lincoln Memorial today, and will provide music for a Presidential Ball after the inauguration.

Overall, Lundquist said he is excited. Regardless of how anyone voted, he said it is a major honor to perform at such a ceremony.

“I think it’s really cool – it’s my first time,” Lundquist said. “I’ve only been here a month.”

During these types of events, he said the band has to be top-notch due to their nature. With press, the crowds and the President looking on, Lundquist said the band will have to be at the top of its game.

“It’s high-profile, and we have to look better than ever,” he said. “We have to be in tip-top shape.”

Depending on the coverage of the events he is performing in, community members here in Jamestown might be able to catch the performance, Lundquist said. The parade will occur after the Inauguration and should be televised. The concert at Lincoln Memorial should also be televised; however, the Presidential Ball most likely will not be.

Lundquist said his parents are proud of the fact that he is involved in such a ceremony.

“The tradition of doing the Presidential Inauguration is a big honor in itself,” he said.

The band will perform two marches in the parade, one entitled “The Washington Post March” by John Philip Sousa and “Trombones Triumphant.” Lundquist said Sousa also wrote the popular march, “Stars and Stripes Forever.”

While the parade will be like others in the beginning, the exciting part begins when the band passes in front of the President, he added.

“When we get to the Presidential Reviewing Station, we play four revels and flourishes, and then we do the ‘Air Force Song,’ as we’re passing by,” Lundquist said. “All the officers that are marching with us will salute. That’s the really cool part of the parade.”

No matter what the weather is, he said the parade will continue because “they don’t cancel it if it’s for the President.”

Lundquist said so far his experience as part of the band has been a good one.

“I’m incredibly blessed and incredibly blessed to do the job I do … and serve my country in this way,” he said. “It’s an absolutely fantastic job. I’m still in shock that this is my life – I feel like I’m living a vacation.”

For more information on the band, visit www.usafband.af.mil.

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