Public Invited to Veterans Day Celebration at Ithaca College

Public Invited to Veterans Day Celebration at Ithaca College

Members of the campus and local communities are invited to join in honoring our nation's veterans at Ithaca College's annual Veterans Day Celebration on Thursday, Nov. 6. Saluting the 250th anniversary of the United States Army, Navy, and Marines, the one-hour program begins at noon in Ford Hall in the James J. Whalen Center for Music. A reception will follow in the McHenry Lobby.

Serving as master of ceremonies will be dean emeritus of music and U.S. Army veteran Art Ostrander, with musical selections performed by the Ithaca College Treble Chorale, Trombone Troupe, and Brass Quintet.

The guest speaker will be Kim Dunnick, emeritus professor in the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and a veteran of the U.S. Army. Dunnick served from 1970 to 1973 as a member of the United States Army Band in Washington, D.C., where he performed with the Ceremonial Band, the Herald Trumpets, and the Army Blues jazz band. In addition to frequent performances at the White House, his work with the Herald Trumpets took him to such locations as Anchorage, Alaska; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Dunnick was on the Ithaca College faculty from 1981 through 2018, providing trumpet instruction and brass chamber music coaching and serving as chair of the Department of Performance Studies for 11 years. He has performed with numerous symphony and chamber orchestras, was a founding member of the International Trumpet Guild - which presented him with its Award of Merit in 2024 - has published numerous journal articles, and serves as a frequent clinician and adjudicator.

The student speaker will be U.S. Navy veteran Brendan Holmes, a student in the college's MBA program in Entertainment & Media Management. Holmes served from 1988 to 1992, completing his enlistment as an Operations Specialist. While deployed on the USS Wisconsin, his responsibilities included real-time data exchange between various U.S. military and coalition command-and-control facilities at the commencement of Operation Desert Storm.

After his enlistment, Holmes completed his undergraduate studies at Hofstra University and worked in the information technology sector as a sales representative and then an anti-piracy consultant with Microsoft. He and his family later relocated to the Finger Lakes region, where they owned and operated a restaurant from 2007 to 2019. Through Chapter 35 benefits provided by the Veteran Readiness and Employment program, he enrolled at Ithaca College and hopes to use his education to help veterans and other underserved people in the community.

For those unable to attend in person, the celebration will be streamed live at ithaca.edu/academics/school-music-theatre-and-dance/live/watch-live.

For more information, visit ithaca.edu/veterans-day-celebration.