When freshman percussionist Caleb Colton auditioned to play with “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, he thought the most challenging part would be perfecting his music. He did not expect a presidential executive order to try and silence the entire concert.
Last year, Colton auditioned for an opportunity. “We were going to play with The [United States] Marine Band, or it’s also called the President’s Own,” he said. He was one of 30 students chosen nationwide to perform at the event scheduled for May 4. However, because the program was a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) partnership between the Equity Arc Foundation in Chicago and the Marine Band to expose underrepresented minorities to a military band career, the program was canceled by the Trump administration.
On Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order banning programs for DEI, dismantling initiatives across the federal government and the nation. However, despite the cancellation, the performance went on, organized by veterans of military bands in an improvised concert on Mar. 9, the week before SPA’s spring break.
Colton participates in the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies (GTCYS), where he heard about Equity Arc. “It was for underrepresented races and ethnicities in the orchestra field, which is why I got the email—my mom is Filipino. So I auditioned for it, which was like back in the fall,” Colton said.
When he received the news that the concert was canceled, Colton was more surprised than disappointed. “After Trump got elected, he [issued] his DEI executive orders. So he ordered the Marine Band to cancel the thing, which was pretty surprising for me because I’ve never been directly impacted by a lot of the decisions made by the government,” Colton said.
A couple of weeks later, he and his parents got an email saying the event would still occur. “I got an email, like in March, from the organizer of the symphony that […] they had partnered with some retired military musicians, and they were gonna still make it happen. And they also said that 60 Minutes [from CBS News] also wanted to do an episode on it. And it was very last minute. I had to fly out, like the next week, so I only had like a week to plan,” Colton said.
Now, not only was Colton going to meet young musicians from all over the country, but he also was going to be featured on national television. “While I was there, I got to meet, like, a ton of really impressive young musicians. I was pretty outclassed by a lot of them. […] There were two other percussionists. The senior was going to Harvard for college, and he had played in […] the Boston Symphony, […] and then the other percussionist was going to Juilliard, and he’s in the pre-college program there.” Though Colton was not interviewed in the 60 Minutes production, he can be seen alongside the other percussionists in the video.
Colton found it a great learning experience, as the students were deeply immersed in rehearsals for two days straight and played alongside veteran military musicians. “I got a ton of personal comments on how I could improve my playing,” he said.
Colton was also exposed to a lot of music in a short amount of time. “Originally, when it was planned for May, we were supposed to get the music ahead of time so we’d have a few months to practice. Then it got canceled and rescheduled. So we didn’t get the music till the day before we got there. […] So it was like a lot of music in a very short time,” Colton said. The musicians were only going to play two songs from the program. However, the day before the concert, the organizers decided to play the entire program consisting of six songs.
He also learned from the best in the field. “There were military musicians from all the different military bands. [Like] the Marine Band, Air Force Band and Army Band musicians. […] They were just playing alongside us […] And that was really cool, because instead of them just coaching you, you also got to hear them play the music. […] And it was really interesting to see, like, all the different details they would focus on,” Colton said.
“While I was playing, it felt, you could tell from like the other people playing, that they definitely cared a lot about it [the significance of continuing with the concert]. And when the interviewer on 60 Minutes [came up], he also got very emotional,” Colton said. Contrary to what the Trump administration might suggest, Colton believes this concert did not damage the United States. Instead, it showcased the best of it: a diverse array of people coming together to create a unified symphony.
