From North Miami High to the FAMU Marching 100, coronavirus won’t stop this trumpeter

Whenever life in the time of COVID-19 got to be too much, Sebastien Zephir picked up his trumpet.

When he plays, there are no online classes, no shifts to work at Subway, no pandemic to fear. He’s still having a normal senior year of high school.

“Everything around me is all sunshine and rainbows,” said Sebastien. “So when I’m playing through my horn, I can actually let out my emotions that I felt with everything going on in my life.

“From not having prom to graduation. And so music has just really been this huge outlet for me.”

Music is also his ticket to college. He had an April 10 audition to join one of the world’s most famous marching bands: The Florida A&M Marching 100.

He planned to audition in person. Instead, he had to send in a video from his bedroom. He put on a dress shirt and pressed record on his cracked iPhone, with barely any time to practice.

Sebastien got an email later that night while he was at work: He was now a member of the 100.

“I was relieved,” Sebastien said, “and in that little amount of time, I actually proved to myself I could uphold the legacy of the 100.”

It’s hard for Sebastien to imagine life without music. It started when he picked up the violin in first grade and tried to match the notes to hip-hop and rap songs on the radio.

“It really got me into the field of music,” he said.

Sebastien dabbled with steel drums in sixth grade. He transferred to John F. Kennedy Middle for seventh and eighth grade. There was no music program there, but he marveled at the marching band next door at North Miami Beach Senior High.

“We would all run to the gate and watch them and hear them march,” he recalled.

Sebastien instead went to North Miami Senior High. He made a pact with his friends to join the marching band. An alumnus steered him to the trumpet over the cymbals.

His teachers talked fondly of FAMU. His band director was an alum of the Marching 100. But witnessing the 100 perform at halftime of a game against Howard University during a college tour at FAMU ultimately sealed the deal.

“That really told me I have to be in that number,” he said. “Since then I’ve just been grinding and grinding until I got to this point.”

He became a drum major in his senior year. That meant he was the first one in the band room and the last one to leave. He also taught drum line to students at Oak Grove Elementary.

Marching band even played a part in his planned “promposal” for his girlfriend. He rounded up the band to practice throwbacks “Object of Desire’‘ by Starpoint and “Can You Stand the Rain,” the Boyz II Men version.

When school moved online, Sebastien had to spoil his own surprise. “She almost cried,” he said.

She already picked out her prom dress. He already planned to wear an African dashiki with a Naruto cape. They wanted to rent a white Range Rover and head to IHOP or Denny’s afterward.

“Everyone says prom is a once in a lifetime experience,” he said. “Now that COVID took it away, I can never tell my kids that their father did X and X and X.”

Sebastien got a job at Subway in January to pay for his senior fees and save for college. Then the pandemic reduced his hours.

Though he’s earned a scholarship with the 100, he must still hustle to earn a spot in the field show.

FAMU’s first game is scheduled for Sept. 6 against Albany State in the Orange Blossom Classic, right back home at Hard Rock Stadium.

He hopes he makes it onto the field so his parents can see him perform.

This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 6:00 AM.