Renee Shane-Boyd, the Catalina Foothills High School band director, remembers how exhilarating it felt to pivot and sweep around TV corner — the intersection of South Orange Grove Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California — while marching in the 2023 Rose Parade.
It’s the moment everyone plays their best as they march in front of the cameras broadcasting to millions of American viewers on New Year's Day.
“What's really fun about it is right after you turn that big corner, you go down this hill, and then you're in the rest of the parade,” Shane-Boyd said. “And the band was singing, and it had an echo in it, and you could kind of hear that cascading down the hill. I think that was one of the most memorable moments for me in that parade.”
The Catalina Foothills Falcon Band, made up of 220 students, is set to head back to Pasadena for the 2028 Rose Parade.
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Catalina Foothills marching band performs during the 101st Tucson Rodeo parade in March 2026. The band is set to play for a second time in the Rose Parade.
“Overwhelmed is the best way to describe it,” Shane-Boyd said of when she found out about the invitation over the summer. “When they first told me, I was really excited and amazed because I didn't really expect to be invited back this soon, so it's really an honor.”
She revealed the news in a special announcement at the band’s Middle School Night at Catalina Foothills High School Friday evening.
“I think they're going to be very excited,” she said Friday afternoon before the announcement to the band. “(The music committee) prepared a video for us. It's an invitation from the Rose Parade president that we're going to show, and she offers them a rose like in The Bachelor.”
The Falcon Band is one of only 20 from around the world chosen for the 2028 parade, according to a news release. Bands are chosen based on musicianship, marching ability, uniqueness, entertainment value and special interest.
“To be selected even once for the Rose Bowl parade is an incredible feat. To be selected twice is very rare. This speaks volumes about the caliber and level of excellence demonstrated by our band program,” Catalina Foothills principal Mary Franco said in a news release. “I am so proud of the hard work and dedication this took to achieve this, from the feeder programs to the boosters, the parents, the teachers, and of course, the students. This is truly an honor.”
Performing on national television is nothing new for the Falcon Band. In addition to marching in the 2023 Rose Parade, it’s the only band in Arizona to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade twice, in 2006 and 2019, a news release says.
In 2019, the Catalina Foothills High School Falcon Marching Band played in the 93rd Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
The parade will also mark the 35-year anniversary of Shane-Boyd’s time leading the band; she’s been the director since the school opened in September 1992.
“We started with 17 students, and we grew pretty exponentially for a while. It pretty much continued to double in size until the late 90s,” she said. “We've been the largest marching band in the state since that time.”
The band will launch its fundraising activities soon to support its trip to the 139th Rose Parade. Visit tuc.life/2oe for more information.
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