By PAT NEWMAN
pnewman@thecitizennews.com

Training for the Summer Olympics is no easy feat.

For athletes, it means four years of intense workouts and competitions. For the 160 members of Fayette County High School's Marching Band headed for Australia Aug. 31, the marching and musical preparation for participation in the opening ceremonies is almost as grueling.

Last week, the Olympic-bound band strutted its stuff for school band director Kenny Beard, assistant Doug Dee and music arranger Ken Dye, who was on hand to assist. Dye, who is Notre Dame University's band director, arranged all the music the 2,000-member Olympic band will perform.

According to Beard, his students must memorize a total of 22 different pieces of music for their part in the opening extravaganza. “The band portion of the opening ceremonies will be about 45 minutes,” he said.

Dee added that the band of 2,000 — composed of approximately half Australian musicians and half American, Japanese, European and Pacific Rim musicians — will be the largest in Olympic history. “It's an unbelievable effort,” he said. Dee is already anticipating the sounds of about 140 tenor saxophones, 400 tubas and proportionate numbers of other instruments playing in unison on the field.

The young musicians have been in rehearsal since April with practices heating up and stretching from early morning until early evening this month. Starting next week, the 90 band members not traveling to Australia join their bandmates for a school-based band camp to practice for the upcoming football halftime show.

If that's not enough, Beard has been playing in the small pit band for Fayette Community Theatre's production of “Guys and Dolls” in the evenings.

During a brief afternoon break, Beard admitted he was tired, but continued to handle three tasks at once without skipping a beat.

Fayette County's band is the only Georgia band participating in the Olympic ceremonies. Their bid to play was in jeopardy about a year ago when Australian Olympic officials pulled their invitation to take part in the opening ceremonies, citing too few Australians and too many foreign nationals in the band. After several weeks of negotiations, and a trip to Australia by Beard to talk directly with Olympic officials, Fayette County's band was re-invited. They will march with several bands from California and contingents from around the world. They will also perform at the famed Sydney Opera House.

Extensive fund-raising efforts have netted about $150,000 for the collective expenses anticipated by the band, according to Beard. Aaron Gray, a senior trumpet player, said he still expects the trip to cost about $3,000 per student.

The group will be in Australia for a little over two weeks, with a portion of their stay taken up with rehearsals. They will be housed at Charles Sturt University in Bathhurst, which is about three hours from Sydney. Beard said five Fayette County High School teachers will accompany the students and keep them up to date on their school work while abroad. Their expenses will be paid by the band's fund-raising efforts organized by band members' parents, according to Beard.

In addition to playing during the opening ceremony, the band is assigned to play during the parade of athletes for Denmark, Korea, Japan, and the Ukraine, among others. “We're not playing for the United States,” Beard noted. The 2,000 members were divided up into three bands — the red, green, and blue bands. Each color band will play for a number of countries, Beard explained.