The Big Thank You

When little Vanessa started playing the clarinet, the only thing on her mind was having it make funny and sometimes pretty sounds. Little did she know that Clara, her Clarinet, would give her more than the “Gift of Music”. After squeaks, squawks, and years of diligent practice, a beautiful friendship formed and the two became inseparable. Clara began taking Vanessa on exciting and amazing journeys. After joining the Air Force Bands and moving to Europe, they lived a fast-paced life. They traveled from country to country, from concert to ceremony and from military base to opera hall playing beautiful music and seeing many sights.

Follow Clara, Vanessa, and the Air Force Band as they step off on a tour across Eastern Europe right after the fall of communism. Explore with them a mysterious and once forbidden land. Their passage into to Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, marked a turning point in the lives of the band as they were welcomed as unsung heroes. Why were the people of Pilsen so thankful to Americans? Join Clara and Vanessa as they experience more than the joy of playing an instrument in a traveling band. Live through a moment in history that had been silently waiting 45 years to happen.