Moscow High School student selected to perform at 80th anniversary of Allied invasion in France

MOSCOW — A Moscow High School junior will join a select group of students from across the country to commemorate one of the most important events in America’s history.

James McKinley was chosen to be among 250 students participating in the All-American D-Day Band to honor the 80th anniversary of the allied invasion of Normandy in World War II.

“That’s basically a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” McKinley said.

McKinley, who plays the trumpet, will fly to Washington, D.C., to meet his bandmates, rehearse their songs and perform at the World War II Memorial. They will then fly to France and spend time in Normandy and Paris.

They will lead the D-Day Memorial Parade and perform at the American Cemetery in Brittany and at the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy.

It will be an 11-day trip in June, he said. According to the event’s website, the band director is retired U.S. Army Col. Timothy Holtan.

It was not an easy process to get selected for the All-American D-Day Band. McKinley said his MHS band teacher, Leah Dahl, nominated him after he expressed interest. The event’s organizers sent him an audition piece he had to learn how to play in two weeks. McKinley was required to submit an unedited video of himself playing the piece.

“It wasn’t a piece you could look up online,” McKinley said. “It was something that they created.”

After he submitted his video, McKinley said he found out he was selected the next day.

“It was quite a surprise, actually, because I didn’t know what would happen,” he said.

McKinley said he was interested in the event because it gives him a chance to travel outside the country for the first time and meet new people while he’s there. He also has military members in his family. Two of his grandparents served in the Vietnam War.

McKinley takes band class at MHS, which means he plays in his school’s marching band, concert band and jazz band. He has played the trumpet for eight years after first learning the instrument in Nikki Crathorne’s class at Moscow’s St. Mary’s Parish School.

“I caught onto it quickly, and so I just stuck with it since,” he said.

He credits teachers like Crathorne, Dahl and Moscow Middle School teacher Tom Garrett for cultivating his passion for music.

His mother, Susan McKinley, encouraged her son’s music playing at a young age. She said he likes challenges and is excited he will have this opportunity.

Susan McKinley also admitted to being a little nervous about sending her son across the ocean.

“But he’s 17, he’s a responsible young man and I’m sure it will be life-enriching,” she said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.