The Harker School Orchestra will be invited to play at the 2012 New Year’s Day parade celebration in London, England, and Lady Catherine Longworth, former lord mayor of the city of Westminister,  will be on campus Fri., Oct. 29, to present the invitation.

London’s New Year’s Day parade will be the first official event celebrating both Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee and the city’s Olympic year. The parade’s Festival Concerts, in which Harker’s orchestra will play,  are also the first events of London’s 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

The parade route wends through Piccadilly, Regent Street and Whitehall, through the center of Westminster, ending in the shadows of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. More than half a million spectators are expected to pack London’s streets to watch the spectacular procession.

The invitation will be presented by a delegation of British officials at an assembly including, along with the former lord mayor, Robert Bone, executive director of the London New Year’s Day parade, and Lady Catherine’s husband, John Longworth. The assembly will be entertained by a section of the orchestra and, afterward, the delegation will enjoy a student-led tour of the campus.

Harker is among a number of schools selected from around the U.S. to be invited to perform in the parade and associated venues around London.