It’s Official: Pasadena All-Star Band to March in 2027 Rose Parade Glory

For the first time in at least two decades, a Pasadena Unified School District band will march east down Colorado Boulevard on New Year’s Day, bringing the city’s own young musicians into the global spotlight.

Students packed into the Pasadena High School auditorium on Wednesday evening for what they thought was just another beginning-of-the-year band meeting. Instead, they got a once-in-a-generation surprise: an invitation to perform in the 2027 Rose Parade.

Yes, 2027. It takes two years for a band to be ready for a Rose Parade.

As Rose Parade president-elect Terry Madigan made the announcement, cheers and applause erupted. Drum majors representing Pasadena High, John Muir, Blair, and Marshall stood beaming as their classmates jumped to their feet, hugging and shouting with glee.

For decades, local music lovers have wondered why Pasadena’s own students weren’t a fixture in the parade that bears the city’s name.

“It takes dedication and hard work,” said Karen Anderson, PUSD’s Arts and Enrichment Coordinator, who has been building the district’s music program for seven years. “This is an expertise program, but it starts at the elementary level. And now, all of our work building up the foundations of movement from the ground up have laid [the path] that our students are able to be seen for the incredible talent that they have and to really showcase the incredible programs that we have in PUSD K–12.”

Band clarinetist Jhani McClain—in the music program since the sixth grade— smiled broadly as they stood in line for celebratory cake. “It’s so fun to realize that I’m actually going to walk in that parade,” she said. “It’s really exciting!”

Drum Major Serena Boschetti, agreed saying, “Back when I was a freshman, I kept asking my band director if there was ever going to be something like this. And so it’s surprising that now I’m a senior and they have something like this. It’s really special. It’s so great that we’re able to really collaborate between these bands. I met so many people around PUSD just by doing this.

“I’m really proud of everyone and I’m proud of all my underclassmen that I have who get to experience this,” she added. Seniors like Boschetti, who will graduate before 2027, will be welcomed back to participate in the parade.

Pasadena Unified’s All-Star Band is made up of 120 students from every district high school, with four drum majors leading the group. “It takes dedication and skill and investment,” said Anderson.” And that’s what happened here.”

The district’s music program was hit hard in the 1980s and 1990s, Anderson explained, but targeted funding — from the Pasadena Educational Foundation and district support — helped rebuild music from the ground up. Today, every student who wants to play is given an instrument free of charge. “We own all of our instruments,” Anderson said. “There’s no pay-to-play.”

Karen Klas, PUSD’s district music director, said the band’s journey to the Rose Parade has been a process of growth — and sweat equity.

“It was not an easy thing to do, but we pulled all these kids together and our first gig, I remember we marched the L.A. County Fair. It was literally 105 degrees,” Klas said to laughter from the crowd. “Since then we’ve kept the band together, we’ve played at community events, we marched the Hollywood Christmas Parade, and this past spring we marched at Knott’s Berry Farm. We kind of made a movement out of it.”

Klas credits the students’ sense of service for helping the band grow tighter as a community. After the Eaton Fire earlier this year, she recalled, band members volunteered to hand out supplies to displaced families during the three-week school closure. “It was wonderful to see,” she said. “The most important thing about community is that word — community. And that’s just such a huge part of what band is all about.”

Wednesday’s announcement marks the beginning of an intense two-year preparation cycle for the 120-member group. They will begin weekly rehearsals this fall, with an eye toward polishing their precision marching and perfecting their music for the national television audience that tunes in every New Year’s morning.

“You have to start at the elementary school level, build kids, build programs,” Anderson said. “And this is what happens when you invest. You get something truly extraordinary.”