Fall Out Boy’s “Centuries” sounded the opening fanfare as 270 alumni joined the 200 student members of the Liberty High School band to celebrate the program’s 100th year with a halftime performance at the Liberty versus Freedom rivalry football game Saturday.

The LHS Grenadier Band has been performing its signature British military style for six decades of that century of history. Its bagpipe corps tripled in size for the anniversary performance, with 26 alumni signed up to join the current 12 pipers.

“This is kind of the most visible performance that the band does, and so we thought this would be a great way to bring folks back and have them on the field in front of a huge crowd,” said Allen Frank, who is now in his sixth year as the band’s director and was previously assistant director.

The band’s unique look stems from uniforms made by the same supplier responsible for His Majesty’s Coldstream Guards, whose iconic big, fuzzy hats can be seen on patrol outside Buckingham Palace.

Interest in the band’s centennial celebration spanned the generations, with the oldest alumni signup coming from the Class of 1959.

Sara Kurtz, a piccolo player from the Class of 1966, said she was excited to join in “a historic event” that will never happen again.

Word of mouth and Facebook posts drew together alumni participants, whose ranks numbered around 180 at their first rehearsal in late September before reaching 270 by game week.

“I hope I’m doing them proud, because they’ve done the program proud,” Frank said. “It has been such a huge part of their lives.”

In addition to watching alumni flood a field some haven’t taken in decades, Frank said he appreciates also having former band directors return to support the show.

Frank became the program’s fifth director when he took the reins in 2021. Prior heads of program include Joseph Ricapito, 1926-61; Ronald Sherry, 1961-90; Gregory MacGill, 1990-2013; and Kevin Long, 2013-2021.

“This is such a storied program, and when you’re the one that is handed the keys to it, you want to make sure that you are maintaining, if not pushing, the standard of what came before you,” Frank said.

An honored history

The first 90 years of the Liberty Band received the documentary treatment in 2016, when the PBS documentary “Second to None” premiered.

The band formed in 1926, four years after the opening of Liberty High. Sherry adopted the British military style in 1966 and added bagpipes, modeled after the Scots Guard, in 1968.

The band has traveled to England six times, becoming the first American high school band to play in London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1986 and leading a parade past Buckingham Palace on their most recent trip this June.

Playing alongside the Band of the Coldstream Guards at the 1986 concert hall performance was “a little intimidating,” according to Class of 1987 piccolo player Renée King, who remembers the military musicians being “pretty businesslike.”

Fellow Class of 1987 alumna Christina Gehringer, a sousaphone player, said that, at the time, she “didn’t even fathom how awesome it was” to play with the Guards, but she looks back on the trip as redefining her conception of how music can shape lives.

Other notable trips for the Liberty band include two Rose Parades in Pasadena and three Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades, in addition to performances at the Indianapolis 500, the Kentucky Derby, a World’s Fair and Harry Truman’s Inaugural Parade.

Among the band’s awards include many triumphs at the Festival of the States in St. Petersburg, Florida, especially during a much-acclaimed period in the 1970s and ’80s.

Class of 1972 piccolo player Luci Peters was part of the 1970 band that took home top titles from the St. Petersburg trip, which included an on-site viewing of the Apollo 13 takeoff.

“We could feel the ground shaking,” Peters said.

Peters also recalls an effort to maintain the band’s distinctive look at all times while in Florida, saying they “couldn’t even come down to breakfast” without donning a navy skort, white Peter Pan blouse and red beret.

When the band returned to Bethlehem after that 1970 trip, the mayor renamed Pine Street behind the school “Grenadier Boulevard” in their honor.

That taste of celebrity extended to King’s time in the band. Retirees living in St. Petersburg knew the bands that competed each year and would ask the Liberty band members they encountered around town to sign programs, King said.

For newer members of the band, the return of so many alumni is a “surreal experience.” Maddy Orlicki, a Class of 2027 trombone player who moved to Bethlehem as a high schooler, said joining the band and seeing how much it means to its alumni and the community as a whole has felt “truly insane.”