FAMU’s Marching 100 preparing to perform at Fashion Week in Paris. Here’s what we know

If there was at any time any doubt about the global reputation of Florida A&M University’s “incomparable” Marching 100 band, that has been erased by fashion field giant Louis Vuitton.

The multi-billion greenback firm has invited the band to complete at the Louis Vuitton Men’s Paris Fashion 7 days Present in France on June 23 during an all-cost-compensated journey.

“As soon as the information broke, my moms and dads identified as me to request if I was heading to Paris with the band,” said Jadon Roberts, a spring 2022 FAMU graduate and returning drum main from Atlanta, Georgia, who will be likely on the excursion. “I didn’t have to notify them about it, they by now realized.”

The chosen band users will be undertaking during a 30-moment phase in the fashion show with a exclusive shock artist, all even though wearing trademark Louis Vuitton apparel.

Band customers who are at present out of town will return to Tallahassee by Wednesday for rehearsals on June 15, 16 and 17 just before their flight the next working day. All flights are scheduled to depart from Atlanta on Saturday.

FAMU’s Director of Bands and Professor of Songs Shelby Chipman received the invitation from Max Chief, a agent of the corporation, on Might 31.

“I picked up the phone and the gentleman mentioned he was representing Louis Vuitton. They’ve found our video clips, and they preferred us to accomplish at the Men’s Fashion Exhibit in Paris,” Chipman mentioned in a organized statement. “I virtually dropped the cellphone. I’m just so enthusiastic for our students to have this option.”

Louis Vuitton is a luxury fashion brand name. A previous Paris fashion show held by the enterprise in January captivated many stars, including Venus Williams, Dave Chappelle and Naomi Campbell, who walked the runway. Paris Fashion 7 days is a series of designer shows held two times a year where renowned manufacturers keep their reveals.

Paris Fashion Week coverage

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All price compensated vacation to Paris for 35 of the 100

Style and production agency We Like Artwork will be sponsoring the journey, in accordance to Chipman. The expenditures getting protected incorporate flights, meals and resort lodging, leaving the college students and workers with no needed costs to pay out.

Associates of Louis Vuitton and We Adore Artwork have been unavailable to discuss to about the occasion.

Although the Marching 100 consists of in excess of 200 band members, the invitation is for 35 of them to conduct. 10 accompanying personnel who typically travel with the college students will be becoming a member of them, such as Chipman, Assistant Director of Bands Shaylor James and Chairman of the Music Section and Band Arranger Lindsey Sarjeant.

“I honestly did not even consider I was heading to get the prospect to go,” explained Stephanie Brown, a next-yr FAMU pupil and rank sergeant from Orlando, Florida who plays the trumpet. “I’m only a sophomore, and I considered other pupils would most likely get the opportunity right before I did.”

How the band is preparing for the major day

Chipman picked learners during an emergency conference about the chance through Zoom. Appointed section leaders have been selected very first before moving on to the other associates who were able to go.

All the sections that are typically represented, from drum majors and flags to piccolos, clarinets, saxophones and percussions were also viewed as to figure out which college students would be picked.

With the journey to Paris being in just a number of days, the band is finding prepared as immediately as feasible. A rehearsal is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon on campus.

Pupils and workers who have expired passports are staying assisted by the Miami Passport Company and the Atlanta Passport Company to expedite the renewal method.

To observe CDC necessities, the band and employees customers will also need to have to present evidence of a damaging COVID-19 test taken in just 72 hours in advance of flying to France.

Not their initial time in Paris

Paris’s fandom for the Tallahassee community’s marching bands goes back again as considerably as 1989 when the Marching 100 was invited to execute in the Bastille Working day Parade to celebrate the French Revolution’s 200th anniversary. Much more lately, Florida Condition University’s Marching Chiefs was invited in 2019 to accomplis
h in France’s D-Day Normandy Parade.

The Marching 100 has been on phase with audio legend Prince, who the band accompanied during the 2007 Tremendous Bowl halftime present. The fashion show’s thriller performer could also be a major artist.

Marching 100 band users also executed in the 2021 NFL Super Bowl pregame live performance in Tampa very last September and the 2021 NBA Allstar Game in Atlanta.

FAMU Marching 100 in the headlines:

“It’s wonderful for the Marching ‘100’ to return to Paris for the Louis Vuitton Fashion Show as they did for Bastille Working day in 1989,” FAMU President Larry Robinson explained in a assertion. “The Marching ‘100’ is symbolic of the excellence of FAMU college students and the experience and care of our Music Division school and team. We just cannot wait to see them wow the town of Paris once again.”

As momentum builds, this is how to view

Chipman was a single of the pupils who performed in the 1989 parade, which marked his past functionality with the band.

“I’m just so elated for us to have this prospect to go back again to Paris in the kind of fashion that we’re likely again to this time, which is a little bit unique from the past time exactly where we had to go for the parade,” Chipman explained. “You can even experience the momentum setting up to select up day by working day in this article in the Tallahassee space now that it is a set point that we are going.”

Whilst in Paris, rehearsals for the fashion present will acquire put on June 19, 20, 21 and 22. The college students will execute at the Louvre Museum on June 23 at 2:30 p.m. GMT+2, or 8:30 a.m. ET. After executing, the band and personnel members will fly back to Atlanta on June 24.

The show will be live-streamed as a result of the Paris Fashion Week’s website at https://parisfashionweek.fhcm.paris/en/exhibits/louis-vuitton-6/.

Get in touch with Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or stick to her on twitter @tarahjean_.

This post originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida A&M Marching 100 will be at Paris Louis Vuitton Fashion Show