Sweet music: Two high school bands chosen to play for pope

The students sat in the bleachers in white marching band T-shirts, name tags hanging from their necks.

Soon they would board the bus for a week at band camp. But first, the Cardinal O'Hara High School marching band had a meeting Sunday morning at the football field in Springfield, Delaware County.

The true purpose of the gathering was a surprise: The 45-member marching band has been selected to perform on the airport tarmac as Pope Francis boards his flight back to Rome from Philadelphia on Sept. 27.

Some of the teenagers cheered when they learned the news. Some clapped. And some showed little reaction.

Senior Liz Bradley, who plays the saxophone, covered her face with her hands and wiped tears from her eyes.

"You will be the last people Pope Francis sees and the last thing he hears as he leaves the United States of America," said Donna Crilley Farrell, executive director of the World Meeting of Families.

But in these disclose-it-now times of social media, what was equally shocking to the students was Farrell's requirement that they keep their exciting news to themselves for several hours, until the band at Bishop Shanahan High School in Downingtown received a similar surprise.

"So I'm going to ask if you can just wait for a short time before you get on Facebook and get on Twitter and on wherever else you might be, on Snapchat," Farrell said, as some students' jaws dropped and others groaned with disappointment.

Five hours later and about 32 miles away, more than 50 members of the Bishop Shanahan band gathered in the school's library Sunday afternoon, where they learned that they will greet Pope Francis when he lands in Philadelphia on Sept. 26.

Jennie McIntyre, a senior flute player, was still grinning several minutes after Josephine Mandeville, chair and president of the Connelly Foundation, a philanthropic group that works closely with the area's Catholic schools, shared the news.

"I can't stop shaking," said McIntyre, her voice trembling with excitement. "It's just so amazing. I was talking with a friend today about how I didn't think we'd make it down [to see the pope] because of all the trains and all that. But now that we're going to be right there, it's amazing."

Jeff Paulukinas, a senior drum player, said the Bishop Shanahan band now has more pressure to practice and play well.

"This is pretty big," he said.

For Farrell, speaking to the Cardinal O'Hara band was special; she was a student at the school in 1979 when Pope John Paul II came to Philadelphia, and she was an usher for the large outdoor Mass.

Farrell had been practicing her speech to the marching band.

"I can't get through it without tearing up," she said Sunday morning, moments before she stood before the students and told them that seeing the pope would be a highlight of their high school years.

"I think it will be a highlight in my life just to be able to play for Pope Francis," Caroline D'Amico, a senior and the O'Hara band's drum major.

O'Hara's band also played for the pope in 1979 - so Sunday's announcement did not come as a complete surprise.

"The Catholic Church is a little tiny bit traditional," said Bradley, the O'Hara saxophone player who cried at the news. "So I was secretly hoping that they would continue the tradition of O'Hara performing."

Students had looked at photos of the 1979 band performance. They had asked whether they would have the same opportunity. And this summer, some parents sent emails to band director Nick Corvino, asking whether he had heard any news about the pope's trip. Corvino kept the secret all summer - he learned in June that his students would perform for the pontiff. He has not yet decided, however, which songs to perform.

"We haven't even gotten to band camp yet," he said Sunday. "So we're bringing a whole lot of music with us."

As Bradley headed off to camp, her tears of excitement over the morning's news had dried. But there will be more, Bradley promised as she imagined what it will be like to play for the pope.

"There's like a 99.9 percent chance I will cry at the concert," she said. "There's definitely that chance."

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@Lmccrystal