Students from the instrumental music department at Roosevelt High School in Wyandotte, Mich., will stop by Bush Elementary School on Monday at the end of a musical “ambassador” tour of Canada. Photo of Roosevelt High School

Michigan high school students will stop next week in Jamestown at the end of a “ambassador” musical tour in Canada.

About 60 members of the instrumental music department at Roosevelt High School in Wyandotte, Michigan, performed in Montreal on Friday before heading to Quebec City for an outdoor community performance. The students will stop Monday in Jamestown on their way home for a performance at Bush Elementary School.

The group is led by director Mark D’Angelo and conductor William Schumann.

D’Angelo graduated from Jamestown High School and his family still resides in the area.

“An interesting fact that few people know is that Lucille Ball, who called Jamestown her childhood home, also lived in Wyandotte, Michigan, with her parents before her father died of typhoid fever in 1915,” D’Angelo said “It’s nice that I can say that I also have the two cities in common with the first lady of comedy, Lucille Ball.”

Roosevelt’s music department is made up of about 200 students and includes two bands, two string orchestras, a jazz ensemble, a percussion ensemble, and a marching band. Due to the cost of travel and current restrictions for group travel across the border, only 60 students are on the current tour.

“This historic trip for our students was originally scheduled for April 2021,” D’Angelo said. “However, in the midst of the pandemic, we had to make different arrangements. Even now, our students will likely be one of the first American ambassadors to Canada since the pandemic began and the borders closed in March 2020.”

The musical program celebrates its 95th anniversary this year. The group has performed in New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.

While in Jamestown, the high schoolers plan to visit the National Comedy Center and the Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum.

D’Angelo loves his hometown. He and his brother both attended Bush, and his mother was involved in organizing parents and teachers at the school.

Her father, Peter D’Angelo, died on April 16 of this year, “which makes this comeback performance a little soulful,” D’Angelo told the Post-Journal. Her parents would have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last Wednesday.

Students from D’Angelo’s music department will perform at Bush around 11:30 a.m. Monday. There will also be a special “surprise performance” for D’Angelo’s mother.