The Grenadier Guards and the Scots Highlanders pipe
and drum regiment, two of Great
Britain's most-acclaimed military bands -- will march across America early next
year, performing
in 53 arenas in all corners of North America, from Maine to Florida and from
Southern California
to Vancouver, BC, and Seattle. Beginning
January 15 at State College, Pennsylvania, the 77
military musicians will travel more than 10,000 miles in their grand tour of
North America.
"By
the time the program closed with Scotland the Brave, the audience was on its
feet,
swept away in a tide of British patriotism", wrote a Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
writer in a review of
the 2000 tour of Britain's Pipes and Drums.
The
Band of the Grenadier Guards represents a historic regiment whose roots can
be traced
to 1656, the year of the birth of Handel and Bach, when the band consisted of
12 musicians playing
hautbois, or oboes. Over the years, it was expanded to include French horns,
clarinets, flutes,
bassoons, drums, tambourines and, by the mid-19th century, saxophones. The
Band has played to
enthusiastic reviews around the world, from the US and Canada to
Europe, Australia and Japan.
In
addition to military music, members can provide various ensembles, including
a marching
band, orchestra, string quartet, dance band or big band. They have performed
for the Queen's
Birthday and the Mounting of the Queen's Guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor
Castle.
In addition to their music, players also are trained as medics in wartime, including
nuclear or chemical warfare. They served in that role as recently as the Gulf
War.
The
Band is stationed at Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace in central
London.
The Highlanders Regiment dates to 1778, when troops were raised in the Scottish
Highlands
to help fight revolutionaries in America and France. The modern regiment was
created in 1994
with the merger of the Queen's Own Highlanders and the Gordon Highlanders.
The
Pipes and Drums are the showpiece of the regiment, one of the world's foremost
military bands. In addition to North America, they have performed in Europe,
Africa, India,
Australia and New Zealand. And they are star performers in British events such
as the Edinburgh
Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle.
The
regiment continues to recruit from the Highlands and islands of Scotland, and
jealously guards its Highland history and connections. Members sport three tartans
-- Mackenzie,
Gordon and Cameron, each of which is worn by all ranks.
But the musicians are first and foremost fully-trained
combat soldiers. Over its two
centuries of history, its members have won 42 Victoria Crosses and 185 major
battle honors for
their exploits in combat from Waterloo and Egypt to El Alamein and The Persian
Gulf.