Note Worthy

- Elizabeth Geli

The Wagner College Marching Band in Staten Island, New York, performed for a really, really big pig in the film “Okja,” a Netflix original film.

Thirty-five Wagner band students traded their black uniform pants for white and wore big pink plumes to perform in a parade scene celebrating the gigantic pig for which the film is named.

“It was one 14-hour day playing one piece of music over and over again,” says director Jose Luis Diaz Jr. “It was a long, grueling day, and they were happy it was over, but at the same time, they all genuinely loved and enjoyed the experience and would love to do it again anytime that opportunity comes up.”

The film production company requested a song that was part of international public domain, so Diaz quickly researched the subject and found “Sweeney’s Cavalcade” by W. Paris Chambers.

“We’re normally a modern pop band,” Diaz says. “This was outside of our comfort zone a little bit, but the students took to it right away.”

The Wagner Band previously appeared in the 2016 film “Nerve.” In other media, the University of Florida Gator Marching Band appeared in a promotional video for “America’s Got Talent,” the Rutgers University drumline played with Imagine Dragons on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” and the University of Southern California band surrounded James Corden and Will Smith during an episode of “Carpool Karaoke.”

Also this summer, the Olentangy Orange High School band from Lewis Center, Ohio, performed live with rock band Papa Roach at the Rock on the Range Festival.

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