Alumni Gazette

Musician First Class

PLUCK: Megan Sesma ’02 is the U.S. Coast Guard Band’s first harpist (Photo by Mike Hvozda/U.S. Coast Guard).

Megan Sesma ’02 has known for a long time that she wanted to play the harp, but she only had a few days to decide if she wanted to become the first full-time harpist in the nearly 80-year history of the U.S. Coast Guard Band.

“It was probably the most difficult decision I’ve ever made and perhaps the best one as well,” says Sesma, who holds bachelor’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the College.

For more than a year, Sesma has been touring with the highly regarded band, which is directed by Captain Lewis Buckley ’69E. She’s embarked on a four-year commitment, including her enlistment in the Coast Guard, where she holds the rank of musician first class.

In July, the band will kick off a nine-day U.S. tour that will take Sesma back to her home state of Iowa and eventually to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Sesma was enrolled in graduate school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles when she saw the call for auditions with the Coast Guard Band and decided to give it a try for the auditioning experience.

“Just a month before auditioning for the position, I had loaded up my van with everything I owned and left Rochester for L.A., thinking I’d probably finish graduate school and settle in California,” says Sesma.

She was one of 30 harpists selected for the first round, and of those, she was the only one chosen for the final round.

The only catch was that she had two days to decide if she would quit graduate school, move across the country to Connecticut, enlist in the Coast Guard, and spend the next four years traveling and performing with the band.

Sesma, who feels a strong connection to her Hispanic heritage—her father was born in Mexico City—says it’s too early to tell if she’ll reenlist.

“I’ve always had this dream of moving to Latin America and teaching at a music conservatory, but who knows where this opportunity with the Coast Guard will take me and my harp?” she says. “I’m open to all the possibilities.”