FLEMING ISLAND – Mara Rose Bruce will make her final, and grandest, curtain call this Saturday.

After the Spring Concert, the woman who took the Fleming Island High band to the national stage will literally pass the baton to her successor, Alexander Buck, appropriately titled “One Last Time: A Celebration of Mara Rose Bruce.”

The concert will start at 4 p.m. in the cafetorium. The public is encouraged to attend.

After spending 30 years, Bruce is ready to be more than a band director. She wants to be a wife. She wants to travel. She wants to help younger band directors. She’s ready to watch – and listen – to other creative approaches.

The school won’t let her quietly slip away. You don’t let legends sneak out the back door. The Spring Concert quickly morphed into a celebration of Bruce’s contributions, which included two invitations to the New Year’s Day parade in London, a performance in Italy and Atlanta, and a sold-out performance in April at Carnegie Hall.

“We’ve been all over the place,” Bruce said. “It comes together with a lot of help. We have incredible people who help us do those things and companies who help us organize it all. When you’re standing on that road, and there are millions of people watching and marching down it, it’s pretty amazing. Every seat was filled when we were standing on the stage at Carnegie Hall. Being able to play on a national stage like that doesn’t compare to anything. It was mind-blowing.”

Bruce said she will miss the late-summer rehearsals in the school parking lot, where temperatures on the black asphalt can reach 110 degrees. She also liked when temperatures dropped to the 50s in late autumn.

The band broke into sections during football season and practiced in the parking lot. The thrill, Bruce said, was watching it all come together at the end of practice into a unified show.

Unlike other band directors, Bruce said she doesn’t particularly care for the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Her Opus, a created work, are all the musicians who’ve lugged trombone and saxophone cases on the bus, tucked flute and clarinets under their arms or walked the hallways with drumsticks in their back pockets.

Every musical note made an impact on her soul. Every song in the past 30 years became part of a mix tape in her memory.

Saturday will be a time for Mara Rose Smith to take a bow. Her real encore comes next.