URBANA — Master Gunnery Sgt. Hilary Harding has played the horn for multiple U.S. presidents, world leaders and celebrities.
She has had to explain to her kids that not everyone’s parents go to work at the White House all the time.
But she’s still excited to play at the University of Illinois with the U.S. Marine Band at 3 p.m. Sunday at Foellinger Great Hall at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts in Urbana.
“I’m just so thrilled to be back on campus,” Harding said. “It was sort of my foundation for being a musician and how I learned to function in this strange career that I have chosen.”
Harding graduated from the UI with a bachelor’s degree in music in 2000, earned her master’s in music from Johns Hopkins University in 2002, and finished out with a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Maryland in 2007.
In the middle of all that, in 2003, she joined the U.S. Marine Band, where she would be assigned principal horn in 2018.
To put it simply: She didn’t have a ton of free time to visit Champaign-Urbana.
“I really can’t wait to be back, even though I know the town is very different,” Harding said. “I know everything has changed, but I hope Courier Cafe is still there. … Hopefully Custard Cup is still there.”
When Harding was attending the UI, she didn’t think she would end up in a military band.
It wasn’t that she ruled it out, but she said she just wanted to play music; any job would do.
Harding thinks she chose the right one.
“I love the history of it. I love the reputation,” she said. “It’s arguably one of the best bands in the world. Now that I’m in it, I can say that’s absolutely true. Of course, I’m biased.”
Harding started learning music very early due to her great-grandmother’s encouragement to play the piano, so when she started second-grade band, she remembers the director basically choosing the horn for her.
Her sister is musically inclined, too, and is a music teacher elsewhere in Illinois, but Harding found that the horn just seemed to “suit” her.
After all those years honing her skills, Harding says she’s grateful to have such a long career with a band that also has a service aspect.
“When you’re in a military band — I always joke, having a dad who is a farmer, it’s amazing to have a job as a professional musician that my father could understand,” Harding said.
Even after all of those White House performances in front of some of the most important and famous people on earth, Harding says that the Foellinger Great Hall is one of her favorite halls she’s ever played in.
She said she’s excited for her solo in a piece that really highlights the horn section, as well as some pieces by famous film soundtrack composer John Williams.
Audiences will recognize him from “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” “Jaws” and many more, but he also has a history of working with the Marine Band and talking about it in interviews.
“It’s nice to listen to someone that’s such an icon and hear him name-drop your job,” Harding said.
The UI concert will also feature one special piece that isn’t being played on the rest of the tour: “University of Illinois March,” written by John Phillip Sousa.
“We’re playing at IU a couple days before, and I’m not sure the Hoosiers would appreciate the ‘University of Illinois March’ quite as much as the Illinois audience,” Harding said.
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