When he waves his black baton, the focus is on leading a seamless rendition of the contemporary sounds of the Fall Out Boy music his students will perform.

But when South Kitsap High School director Gary Grams envisions taking 103 students and 16 chaperons to the April 11 Cherry Blossom Festival Washington, D.C., his thoughts veer from trumpets and trombones to sights and scenes.

From Grams’ perspective, the trip is a continuation of the band’s last out-of-state performance to Hawaii for the 70th Anniversary Pearl Harbor Attack Commemoration on Dec. 7, 2011.

“I’m excited to go to the World War II memorial they have because going to Pearl Harbor we got to see all of that,” Grams said. “D.C. is the other end of that. They kind of get to see the history from being at Pearl Harbor to D.C., where all the decisions are made and the monuments are erected. “We get to bring some closure to that.”

Senior Ashley Ulrich, who plays the trumpet, is among nine students still in the program who traveled to Pearl Harbor.

“It’s a completion of my high-school career,” she said. “I’m excited to go see the Smithsonian and the Holocaust Museum. It’s just humbling getting to see the culmination of that history put together and we get to see more of the European side with the Smithsonian.”

Grams likes to travel for a major performance about once every three years, which he said affords every student in the program an opportunity to participate at least once. One exception was Hawaii, which followed SKHS’ 2010 performance at the Rose Bowl. Grams felt Pearl Harbor was an “opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”

While the D.C. performance is a one-day event, the band will be gone from April 8-13. That leaves time for sightseeing, and Grams has a full agenda for a trip he characterizes as “very historical.”

“We’ll see all of the monuments, Arlington National Cemetery, we’ll spend a day at the Smithsonian, the Holocaust Museum,” he said. “We’re going to go up to Philadelphia for a day and see Independence Hall and take a walking tour of the Liberty Bell.”

Students also will visit the Lincoln Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

“Through various history classes, we learn about things we never get to see in person,” said senior Charlotte Whitten, who plays the french horn and vibraphone. “We see PowerPoints on them, we watch videos, but we never get to experience them firsthand. I think this is a great opportunity for us to go with our closest friends — that we have a true family bond with — and experience our history and see exactly how we have all freedoms we have. I think it’s a great cultural experience for us.”

The band is set to perform “America the Beautiful” at an undetermined date during the trip at George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia. But its song selection at the Cherry Blossom Festival will be different from Grams’ previous bands. During his tenure, Grams’ bands have performed the work of classic rock groups, such as Earth, Wind & Fire and Styx. But senior drum major Aaron Rogers said they decided to head another direction when they selected this year’s music. The two Fall Out Boy songs they will play at the Cherry Blossom Festival are “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)” and “I Don’t Care.”

“We’ve always done classic rock,” Rogers said. “We found this really cool show that’s kind of more contemporary that more people know, will appeal to a younger crowd and is still fun.”

For the trip, Grams said enough has been raised to offset $106 per student for the trip. He hopes to raise an additional $150-$200 per student during their Feb. 21 “Big Band Banquet,” which is an annual fundraising event from 4:30-8 p.m. Feb. 21 at the SKHS Commons. Before those deductions, Grams said the trip cost each student $1,865, which “includes everything, even souvenir T-shirts and a patch to commemorate their participation.”

Several band members expressed their appreciation for the opportunity.

“I’m just really excited that our community has helped give us this opportunity to go to the East Coast,” Whitten said. “If we didn’t have the support of our community, we wouldn’t be able to do that.”

While SKHS’ proximity to Naval Base Kitsap and the area’s ties to the USS Missouri, which was the site of the ceremony officially ending World War II, and also was docked in Bremerton from 1954-84 and again from 1992-98, played a significant factor in the band’s selection to play at Pearl Harbor, Grams said their participation in the Rose Bowl and overall résumé were significant in the selection process.

SKHS has performed in Seattle’s Macy’s Holiday Parade, Wenatchee’s Apple Blossom Parade, Bremerton’s Armed Forces Parade and Husky Band Day the last several years. In 2007, the band traveled to the Heritage Festival in Orlando, Fla. SKHS’ wind ensemble earned second place in that event.

That was Grams’ vision when he was hired in 2002 at SKHS from Shepherd High School in Montana, which had 75 band members in the 250-member student body. At the time, he was the school’s third band director in four years and had just 48 members.

Grams, who played the trombone, baritone and tuba in high school and performed at the 1991 Tournament of Roses Parade as a member of the Wyoming All-State Centennial Marching Band, said he wanted to build one of the “high-quality, high-caliber bands” to perform at major events.

When he was in high school, Grams also traveled to Philadelphia with his band to perform in the Independence Day Parade. He said he wanted to return to the area after that performance, which is what led to applying for the Cherry Blossom Festival last year. The application process required him to submit pictures, YouTube videos, write a letter and answer general questions.

SKHS’ band now has performed in many regions of the country, but that has not dwindled Grams’ desire to experience more. He would like to return to the Rose Bowl and make international trips to Ireland for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and China at some point.

In addition to building “life skills” — each student is required to pay for the trip in monthly installments — Grams hopes students gain a firsthand perspective from what they have learned in U.S. History classes.

“We don’t have those things back here,” he said. “We get to see a different community. It just enhances what they already know.”