Pitiful, Contemptible . . .
Holding young musicians accountable for their race, color, etc., not allowing them to express themselves in music.
The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, “The President’s Own.”
Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last year, when the Marines judged a contest for teenage musicians. The winners would perform with the band. Thirty students were chosen. The concert was scheduled.
But, last month, it was cancelled. President Trump had issued his executive order against diversity programs, and the young musicians were Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. Because they were silenced, many wanted to hear them including veterans of military bands who gathered in an improvised orchestra of equity that you might call America’s own.
This past Sunday, at the music center at Strathmore, near Washington, 22 students who had lost their chance to play tuned up with the military band veterans for the concert that was not meant to be heard.
This music had been planned for the cancelled concert. “Nobles of the Mystic Shrine” by John Philip Sousa. Sousa directed the Marine Band a century and a half ago and composed “Stars and Stripes Forever,” the great classic in the songbook of patriots.
Rishab Jain: We’re a land that prides itself on being the land of the free, the home of the brave. And I believe that just as much as anyone else does. But for that, we need these different perspectives. We need to see how others think.
18-year-old Rishab Jain was among the students barred from playing with the Marines. He was born in America to Indian parents—a high school senior accepted at Harvard.
Rishab Jain: If we’re a society that’s suppressing art, we’re a society that is afraid of what it might reveal about itself. If we’re suppressing music, we’re suppressing emotions, we’re suppressing expression, we’re suppressing vulnerability, we’re suppressing the very essence of what makes us human. We are devaluing our own humanity. We are degrading our own humanity.
Scott Pelley: You don’t seem to believe in limitations.
Rishab Jain: Absolutely not.
There were no limitations but talent, last year, when Rishab Jain and about 60 others, nationwide, posted auditions for the Marines to judge. Zakyya McClenny uploaded her clarinet from Pennsylvania.