When the Saints go marching in
January 11, 2024 at 2:55 a.m.
Few can say they had as eventful of a New Year’s Day as the members of the Saints Brigade Drum and Bugle Corps.
While many were waking up late at home after a late night of festivities, 90 musicians with the community-based non-profit were 4,000 miles away, performing in front of 200,000 people.
A member of the Saints Brigade Drum and Bugle Corps marches down the streets of Rome on Jan. 1, beating a drum.Courtesy of Frank Barchella
On Dec. 27, 2023, the musicians flew to Italy to perform in Rome’s New Year’s Day Parade on Jan. 1, and returned on Jan. 3. But the trip didn’t just provide an opportunity for members of the Saints Brigade to get performing experience—they got to be tourists, too.
“We got to go to the Roman Colosseum,” recalled Nick Cozza, a trumpet player in the group. “We saw Vatican City, which was very nice and interesting. But I think my favorite part was Pompeii. I thought that was really cool, to go see the history and how well preserved everything is.”
The 18-year-old is a relatively new face to the Saints Brigade, having joined in November 2021 with very little marching experience, but he’s a prime example of what the organization strives to accomplish.
Frank Barchella founded the band in 2011 alongside Bob Vitti as a charity group that helped fund the Port Chester High School Marching Band, of which Vitti had served as a longtime director. But the Saints Brigade has changed greatly in the last 13 years.
“It was a vehicle to get kids the chance to perform on stages larger than the town,” Barchella said.
Today, the group serves as an avenue for those interested in marching bands to learn an instrument and perform in front of a crowd at no cost. Featuring musicians from Port Chester, including members of the Port Chester High School Marching Band, and some from outside the community of any age, Barchella estimated that the organization has seen over 1,000 members over the past 11 years.
Cozza, a Tuckahoe resident, was one of the many who was recruited after the COVID-19 outbreak, which significantly affected the membership of the Saints Brigade. “We lost half of our members,” Barchella said. “We just about packed it all in.” The pandemic threw a wrench into the group’s plans, having just completed its first international trip.
Kicking off the year 2020, the marching band was featured in the London New Year’s Day Parade in England, and Barchella had set his sights on a similar event.
“We were invited to go to Rome and France right after London,” he said. “France was supposed to be that summer, in 2020, and Rome was originally in 2022, but then everything shut down.” He credits the musicians who returned after the pandemic, as well as the new recruits, for making the recent excursion possible.
“These kids are resilient,” he said. “They’re not your normal kids. They rise up and fight for what they have. We built the corps back up, and that’s how we got to Rome.”
At 3:30 p.m. local time, the musicians marched through the tight streets of Rome, playing recognizable songs by Ricky Martin, Santana, Alicia Keyes and more. Barchella said the music was selected to keep the show entertaining.
“It’s music that everyone knows,” he said. “We’re not going to put people to sleep. We want you to sing and tap along.” To add to the viewer experience, Barchella requested a more patriotic uniform design from one of the organization’s sponsors.
The uniforms, which change every year, were dubbed the “Patriotic Mandalorian” by Barchella, taking inspiration from the U.S. flag and a popular Star Wars character. “When we go overseas, we don’t just represent our community,” he said. “We represent the country, and we’re very prideful of that.” While definitely eye-catching, the outfits added a new challenge for the performers.
“It didn’t make it easy, but everyone loved it,” Sam Brown, a baritone horn player, said. “It’s difficult to see, and we actually had to cut part of it off to be able to play properly.” He added that the experience was unlike anything he had done with the group.
“The main thing that I remember was the amount of people and the amount of space that we had,” the resident of Grace Church Street explained. “Directly next to you on one side was a person playing an instrument and on the other side was someone taking your picture basically touching your elbow.” The narrow streets of Rome required the band to change formation on multiple occasions during the parade, something they’d never done before.
“We had to change forms a couple of times while marching,” Brown said. “We would go from five or six across to three or four across, squeezing together pretty tightly just to fit down the streets.”
The musicians of the Saints Brigade Drum and Bugle Corps walk in a tight formation to navigate the narrow streets of Rome.Courtesy of Frank Barchella
Despite the limited maneuverability, Barchella said the musicians exceeded expectations.
“I asked them to play the best performance that they could, because who knows when they’ll be back here again,” he said. “But when the lights were on and it mattered most, these kids from this town knocked it out of the park.”
He was more impressed because many of the musicians had never traveled out of the country before.
“We had kids that are 10, 11 years old go with us,” he said. “It was the first time overseas for a lot of these kids, and even the chaperones. It might even be the only time. It’s a miracle that we can provide this for them.”
Cozza said the Saints Brigade granted him experiences he didn’t think were possible for him. “I don’t think any high school or college marching band would have gotten me anywhere close to this,” he said.
Brown agreed. “I’ve only left the country with Saints Brigade,” he said, referring to both the London and Rome performances. “I’m grateful for those opportunities, because I don’t think I would’ve had that opportunity without them.”
Having returned home after their performance, Barchella has one goal left for the group.
“I promised them France, and that was taken from them, I promised them Italy and we got there,” he said. “And I promised them one more to Madrid in 2026.” He’s eyeing the Three Kings Parade, an annual event that takes over Spain’s capital city on one night in January. Both Brown and Cozza stated they plan on attending that trip as well. However, Barchella is unsure of what the future holds for the group.
“Past the trip to Madrid, that could be it for us,” he lamented. “But I’d be okay with that. We’ve done things that have never been done. There’s never been a private marching band that doesn’t charge any money that has been to Europe three times.”
Barchella feels as if he’s already left his mark on the community with the Saints Brigade.
“There are kids who have been with us for a while,” he said. “We’ve watched them grow up, and it’s definitely been life-changing. For all of us.”
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