Montana State students join D-Day anniversary band for performances in France

BOZEMAN - Two Montana State University students landed in Normandy, France, last month to play music at events commemorating the 80th anniversary of World War II's D-Day.

MSU's Jackson Queneau and Jackie Olivares joined more than 150 other collegiate band members for the festivities in France that will not only be a highlight of their music careers but also gave them a greater appreciation for the troops that fought in World War II. Both Queneau and Olivares have relatives who served in the military.

D-Day was June 6, 1944, when Allied forces invaded Western Europe. Troops made amphibious landings throughout France, including at Normandy.

"It was a really powerful experience," said Queneau, a civil engineering student from Missoula whose great grandfather fought at Normandy. "There were a lot of WWII veterans there. I even got to shake hands with two of them."

Queneau, Olivares and the other student musicians from the U.S. performed in the D-Day 80th Anniversary Collegiate Mass Band. Before heading to France, the band members practiced with their peers in Washington, D.C. They rehearsed in hotel ballrooms and practiced marching in the hotel parking lot. Queneau and Olivares complimented their fellow musicians and directors for their professionalism and support.

Queneau plays tenor drums in MSU's Spirit of the West marching band and was the only tenor drums player in the collegiate mass band. Olivares, a mechanical engineering technology student, plays the sousaphone. Both said they felt prepared to play on an international stage.

With WWII-era planes flying overhead, the band performed in a parade in Sainte-Mère-Église, the first town liberated by American troops in 1944, and at the Brittany American Cemetery, where more than 4,000 American troops are buried.

At the cemetery, the students were given time to set up their instruments and walk among the graves. Then they performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" along with multiple other bands, an experience that Queneau and Olivares said they will remember forever.

"Seeing all the graves and noticing that most of them passed away around the same time deeply saddened me to see firsthand how many lives were lost in that short amount of time," Olivares said.

After the D-Day ceremonies, Queneau and Olivares traveled to Paris and took in the sights. Nathan Stark, associate music professor and director of MSU's marching band, said he followed the events on social media and was proud of his students for participating and proudly representing MSU.

"To see that beach and play for the locals and veterans in attendance must have been life altering for our students," he said. "For them to take what they've learned at MSU and join a group that has students from other institutions and get to work with the other directors, not only is it an amazing opportunity for them musically, but it is also a kind a feather in our cap that we have students that are on par with students across the country."