Detroit Lakes Band Director Tim Siewert Marches In 133rd Annual Rose Parade

PASADENA, CA (KDLM) – After being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 133rd annual Rose Parade returned to Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California on January 1st.

The 2022 parade featured 37 floats, 17 equestrian units, and 17 marching bands from across the country. The Band Directors Marching Band from Pickerington, Ohio made its Rose Parade debut and was formed to honor Mike Sewell, a former band instructor from Ohio that brought his high school marching band to the Rose Parade four times between 1981 and 2015 before he passed away in 2017. The 289-member marching band was comprised of band directors from all 50 states and Mexico and included Detroit Lakes High School band director Tim Siewert and his father, Jim.

“I actually saw it advertised in a Facebook post,” says Siewert. “I sent in an application and was accepted about a year ago. This was a long process and an unbelievable experience. Easily a top-five career moment for me.”

Siewert, who has been the band director at DLHS for the last seven years, had the opportunity to march the 5 1/2 mile long parade route with his father, who was his band instructor in St. Peter.

“My dad was the one who laid the foundation for me and created my love of music and music education,” Siewert said. “Without him, I wouldn’t be a band director today. And so to have him there next to me, marching side by side in the Rose Parade together was pretty special.”

Still shot of Mr. Siewert in the Tournament of Roses Parade. I believe his Dad is right next to him. @DLPublicSchools pic.twitter.com/tKP0W1SaN7

— Detroit Lakes High (@DetLakesHigh) January 1, 2022

The Siewerts and The Band Directors Marching Band played three songs during their 5 1/2 mile march last Saturday: John Phillip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, George Gershwin’s Strike Up The Band, and 76 Trombones from Meredith Wilson’s award-winning musical The Music Man, which is what parade viewers on ABC’s national broadcast of the event heard.

“It was a long parade,” Siewert remembers. “It took about an hour and 45 minutes to march from the beginning to the end. I spent a lot of time on my treadmill at home preparing and, obviously, we have to play as well. I was practicing my trumpet for months in advance, learning and memorizing the music. It was definitely a physical regimen that I had to prepare for.”

After the hours of practice and the miles-long march in Pasadena, Seiwert reflected on the experience.

“The two things that I’ll take away from this were the amazing floats. The detail that goes into those, and you could smell all the flowers that are on the floats. The other thing was the great networking opportunity I had to talk to other band directors from across the country. The opportunity to talk to other people who do what I do and to bounce ideas off of each other and to take some things home that I can implement here in Detroit Lakes with our Laker band program, and to commiserate with people that can understand what we’re going through was a lot of fun, too.”

Next up for Siewert and the Laker band will be a pep band double-header opening the Lakeshirts Fieldhouse tonight in Detroit Lakes. The Laker band is also preparing for an upcoming Band Tour trip to Hawaii in March.

WATCH: The Marching Band Directors in the 133rd Annual Rose Parade