VIDEO: Tupelo High’s Band Director’s Big Plans

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)- It was one week ago that the Tupelo High School Band witnessed history in the making as they marched in the inaugural parade for President Donald Trump.

They were selected months after the school’s new band director sent in an application.

The world watched as the Tupelo High School Band marched up Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. It was a moment everyone involved will remember and cherish.

Band members will also remember hours of practice leading up to the huge event. Rick Murphy runs a tight ship. He came on board as high school band director last summer. Teaching music is his passion. Murphy was a band director for 36 years in Tennessee, at the high school and college level. He is known for bringing out the best in young musicians and collecting awards for his band programs along the way.

Murphy has big plans for the Tupelo High School Band.

“Twenty years ago, thirty, forty years ago, Tupelo was one of the bands, if not THE band in the state of Mississippi, being from out of state, I knew the Tupelo band and if you had asked me who the great bands were in Mississippi I would have said Tupelo would be one of them and we need to recapture that, we need to be at the top of that, Tupelo High School deserves that and so does the band program,” says Murphy.

He has a plan to Make the Band Great Again.

“We have to get back in the classroom and start teaching again, there’s lots of learning that the Tupelo Band needs to do because we want to get to the next level, we want to become one of the great bands of America, ” says Murphy.

The veteran band director is strict, but also has a great rapport with students.

“He jokes around with us and is like, pretty funny, from his facial expressions and stuff,” says band member Taylor Kelly.

“I like Mr Murphy, he’s really fun and he’s new too, I like that a lot,” says band member Chandler Bogan.

Murphy says he also wants to thank the community for covering the cost of the Washington DC trip.

Now, he has his sights set on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, or the Rose Bowl Parade for the THS Band.

A “Celebration of Thanks” is set for Sunday at 3 at the THS Band Hall.

It is an opportunity to show appreciation for those who donated and helped the band make the historic trip.