By Miles Layton

TYNER — When Jeremiah Brown steps onto the streets of Pasadena on New Year’s Day 2026, he will be carrying more than a clarinet. He will be carrying the name of his school, his county and the rural northeastern North Carolina communities that shaped him.

Brown, the band director at Chowan Middle School, has been selected to march in the 2026 Rose Parade as part of the “Band Directors Marching Band,” a special ensemble made up entirely of current and former band directors from across North America. The group will perform Jan. 1 as part of the internationally televised parade that precedes the Rose Bowl Game.

Brown will be one of 333 band directors selected for the project, known as Saluting America’s Band Directors. The group will march the full 5.5-mile parade route while performing live music.

“I will be playing throughout the parade,” said Brown, who is in his second year of teaching. Go Bulldogs!

Specifically, Brown will be playing the clarinet. The music, he said, will lean heavily on patriotic selections and classic marching repertoire.

“A lot of the music that has been selected tends to stay on the patriotic side,” he said. “We have an arrangement of Amazing Grace by Robert Thurston that will certainly touch the heart of every spectator, a March Trio that is comprised of three marches written by John Phillip Sousa, Brand New Day by Luther Van Dross, 76 Trombones by Meredith Willson, and a fun arrangement of When the Saints Go Marching In that is entitled Strike Up the Saints! by Lisa Galvin.”

Brown will travel to California just after Christmas to prepare for the parade. Asked how he feels about the opportunity, Brown did not hesitate.

“I’m super excited,” he said.

Brown’s selection places him among band directors from across the United States and Canada who have spent their careers teaching music and mentoring students. The parade entry carries the theme, “America’s band directors: We teach music. We teach life,” highlighting the broader impact music educators have beyond the band room.

Though he now teaches in Chowan County, Brown is a local product himself.

“I’m actually a Perquimans native,” Brown said. “I grew up there, graduated in 2019 from Perquimans High School.” Go Pirates!

After high school, Brown attended East Carolina University before returning home to teach in 2024.

At just a few years into his teaching career, Brown will be one of the younger directors marching in the parade. He sees that not as a disadvantage, but as an asset.

“I’d love to advocate for Chowan itself and represent these Title-1 schools and these rural communities,” Brown said. “But I’m also going there to learn and observe. I’m definitely one of the younger directors in the room, so I’d love to go and just learn and pick everyone’s brain and come back with new ideas to help our county as well.”

The Band Directors Marching Band will be directed by nationally known music educator Jon Waters, who will lead rehearsals and performances while the group is in Pasadena. The band will accompany a colorful, animated float designed to honor music educators and their influence on generations of students.

Brown said the experience is deeply meaningful on both a personal and professional level.

“It is an honor of the highest kind to represent my students and my school district,” Brown said. “I am humbled to demonstrate how music can inspire, empower, and open doors to meaningful lifelong opportunities.”

The Saluting America’s Band Directors project is sponsored by the Michael D. Sewell Memorial Foundation, an Ohio-based organization created to honor the legacy of the late Mike Sewell, who devoted nearly four decades to school and community music programs. Through the Rose Parade appearance, the foundation aims to spotlight the often-unseen dedication of band directors who teach far more than notes and rhythms.

For Brown, marching down Colorado Boulevard will be a milestone he hopes reflects back home.

As he prepares to trade the Chowan Middle School band room for one of the world’s most famous parade routes, Brown said he is focused not only on the performance but on what he can bring back.

Brown will march as a musician, an educator and, above all, a representative of the communities that shaped him — from Perquimans County to Chowan County — carrying their name into the new year on a national stage.