“It’s kind of unbelievable and I couldn’t imagine being able to say this would happen a year or two ago. There’s been a lot of hard work, but everything seems to have built on itself,” he said.

In “The Commandant’s Own,” he will be part of a long-standing music tradition in the Marine Corps. The group’s 90 musicians play in several hundred public shows and ceremonies each year and give special performances for audiences that include U.S. presidents, world leaders and other dignitaries. The corps, a sister group to the U.S. Marine Band, frequently appears in parades in the nation’s capital. The members also tour nationally and internationally.

All the corps’ musicians are on active duty, and Estes will be enlisting in the Marines before he moves to Washington. He reports for 13 weeks of basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, in early June. After that, he will reside in the historic Marine barracks at 8th and I Streets, near the Capitol Building.

Estes served as the bass drum section leader for the 2014 season of the Pride of the Mountains. He also has performed in a variety of musical groups, including wind and percussion ensembles, radio shows and Purple Thunder, the indoor percussion group at basketball games. During his freshman year at WCU, he and the Pride of the Mountains marched in the 2011 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day. As a senior, the WCU School of Music named him the Instrumental Performer of the Year for 2014-15. He also led the group during the 2014 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.