Students with the Roosevelt High School Instrumental Music Department from Wyandotte, Michigan, will make a stop Monday at Bush Elementary School on the tail end of an “ambassador” music tour in Canada. Photo by Roosevelt High School

High school students from Michigan will make a stop next week in Jamestown on the tail end of an “ambassador” music tour in Canada.

About 60 members of the Roosevelt High School Instrumental Music Department from Wyandotte, Michigan, performed in Montreal on Friday before traveling to Quebec City for an outdoor community performance. Students will make a stop Monday in Jamestown on their way home for a performance at Bush Elementary School.

The group is led by director Mark D’Angelo and orchestra director William Schumann.

D’Angelo graduated from Jamestown High School and his family still resides in the area.

“An interesting fact that not many people know about is that Lucille Ball, who called Jamestown her childhood home, also lived in Wyandotte, Michigan, with her parents prior to her father’s death of typhoid fever in 1915,” D’Angelo said “It is neat that I can say that I also have both cities in common with the first lady of comedy, Lucille Ball.”

Roosevelt’s music department is made up of about 200 students and includes two bands, two string orchestras, jazz ensemble, percussion ensemble and a marching band. Due to the cost of the trip, and the current restrictions for group travel across the border, only 60 students are involved in the current tour.

“This historic trip for our students was originally planned for April 2021,” D’Angelo said. “However, in the midst of the pandemic we had to make difference arrangements. Even now, our students are likely to be one of the first American ambassadors into Canada since the pandemic began and the borders closed in March 2020.”

The music program is celebrating its 95th anniversary this year. The group has performed in New Orleans, New York City, Chicago, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.

While in Jamestown, the high schoolers plan to visit the National Comedy Center and the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum.

D’Angelo is fond of his hometown. He and his brother both attended Bush, and his mom was involved in the school’s parent teacher organization.

His father, Peter D’Angelo, passed away April 16 of this year, “which makes this homecoming performance a bit melancholy,” D’Angelo told The Post-Journal. His parents would have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary this past Wednesday.

Students from D’Angelo’s music department will perform at Bush around 11:30 a.m. on Monday. There will also be a special “surprise performance” for D’Angelo’s mom.