In spring of 2024, Boise State student Eston Hall was studying abroad at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany. Hall has experience in almost every facet of the College of Arts and Sciences. He is a Spanish secondary education major and a German minor. He was also a clarinetist in the Blue Thunder Marching Band.
Hall’s placement in Saarbrücken was fortuitous. His host family lived next to Kurt Weidmann, the band director at the nearby Kaiserslautern High School. Kaiserslautern serves children of American servicemembers in the region, and Weidmann was hoping to expand the school’s musical offerings to include a marching band.
Weidmann learned about Hall’s marching band experience through his host family and quickly reached out to enlist Hall as a subject matter expert. Hall was delighted to help out, seeing the opportunity as a “side quest” during his time in Germany.
Together, Hall and Weidmann worked to develop the incipient marching band program at Kaiserslautern High School. Hall used his experience in the Blue Thunder Marching Band to draw up a K-shaped formation for the Kaiserslautern marchers to use on field. He also visited band practices to students proper marching band posture and teach the basics of on-field movement – essentials for students who had only played in concert halls until then.
“Beyond displaying Eston’s skills at marching band techniques, this unique moment shows how intercultural competencies arise when one least expects it,” said Beret Norman, German section head in the Department of World Languages. “Eston’s love of music helped him create a bridge of experience for high schoolers in Germany.”
For Hall, the volunteer work may have been a side quest and a small opportunity to help out. But for students at Kaiserslautern High School, he left a lasting impact. On Oct. 4, the marching band deployed their first on-field formation in their homecoming football game versus Lakenheath High School.