Clarinettist Wyatt Evelyn ’29 and flutist Ady Heder ’30, both from military families, prepare for the HRA band’s special Veterans Day concert on November 11
“Military families in our area are looking for an institution of learning they can trust,” said Hampton Roads Academy Director of Bands Brian Grieb. “They can pick anywhere they want to go, but they choose to send their kids to HRA because they know they’ll get a high-quality education.”
To thank the many veterans and active-duty military personnel who have placed their trust in the Academy for their support of the school and their unmatched service to their country, the HRA band will hold a free, public Veterans Day concert on Wednesday, November 11, at 6:00 pm.
The special tribute to military families, some of the most valued members of the Navigator community, will feature performances by concert band students in Grades 7 through 12, as well as the 7 O’Clock Jazz Band, an acclaimed extracurricular ensemble for Upper School and eighth-grade musicians. To close the concert, students will perform “Armed Forces Service Songs,” a medley of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard anthems arranged by Tom Tucker. During the rousing finale, veterans and active-duty members of each of the represented branches will be invited to stand and be recognized as their respective anthems play and a slideshow of photographs of these servicepeople in uniform rolls behind the band.
Director of Bands Brian Grieb conducts a rehearsal for the upcoming performance
“We want them to know that they’re cared for,” Grieb said, “and we want them here.”
For the band director, who grew up in Hampton Roads, a sense of connection to the local military community runs deep. Since his childhood, he has been acquainted with families connected to the area’s multiple military installations, and he considers it a privilege to teach at a school that has for decades counted numerous veterans among its parents, grandparents, faculty, and staff. As Grieb noted, HRA is also fortunate to be surrounded by several military performing arts institutions, including the United States Armed Forces School of Music in Virginia Beach and the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band, right here on the Peninsula at Joint Base Langley-Eustis.
In planning this year’s concert, Grieb drew inspiration from the Lower School “Salute to the Military” at last November’s Leadership Assembly, a musical tribute to military parents and families that will return next month as HRA’s youngest students celebrate Veterans Day.
Inspiration from the Lower School: HRA military parents stand to be recognized during a tribute to servicepeople at a Leadership Assembly last November
“I thought it was great that [Lower School music teacher] Erika Caulford was doing that,” Grieb said. “We want [the students] to continue that tradition when they move into the Middle School and Upper School.”
When the band director proposed the idea for a Veterans Day concert, Performing Arts Department Chair Kate Goddin recalled, “I was all for it, because I’m a military brat. I think anything we can do to honor our military service members in this community is a great thing.”
The opportunity to celebrate these heroes is especially meaningful for band students whose parents and other relatives have served.
According to ninth-grade flutist Ady Heder ’30, the daughter of an Air Force doctor who has served for over a decade and a half, “this concert is a way to show my dad how much I appreciate his service for our country.”
“Service members in our community,” she added, “spend months to years away from family and friends, have the constant threat of being put in an active war zone, and many have PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and other physical and mental disabilities from serving.”
HRA’s 7 O’Clock Jazz Band is proud to join the concert band in honoring military families
“This concert is important in that it recognizes all those who serve and have served and the sacrifices they make, which are great,” said sophomore clarinettist Wyatt Evelyn ’29, a member of the HRA band since the seventh grade. Evelyn, whose father served in the Army for nearly 32 years and whose grandfather was a member of the Navy during the Vietnam War, described himself as having experienced “the easier end of the military kid spectrum,” with only one interstate move and one deployment for his father that lasted longer than a year. However, he knows many students whose families have moved bases every other year, a situation that demands courage of children, just as service does of their parents.
As Heder aptly explained, “Acknowledging and helping these amazing people with any means possible is the least we can do for all the blood, sweat, and tears they’ve put into protecting us.”
Military families’ commitment to service is an inspiration for every Navigator, and their resilience in the face of incredible challenges stands as a model of the crucial character skill that constitutes the schoolwide theme for the 2026-2027 academic year.
Hampton Roads Academy welcomes every veteran, every active-duty member of the Armed Forces, and every family with a connection to and reverence for the military to join the HRA band for an unforgettable concert this Veterans Day. Honored guests will help launch what Grieb hopes will become a lasting HRA tradition, expanding in future years to include additional musical ensembles. HRA is proud to call many servicepeople part of the Navigator community, and this special event will bring the school together each November to celebrate their unparalleled contributions.
