Professor Jay Rees, B.M. ’84, director of athletic bands, says the national exposure and professional guidance offered in today’s Frost Band of the Hour is often a game-changer for Frost students building a career in music.
Students agree.
“The caliber of events that the band does, and all that goes on behind the scenes while working
with and observing my directors, has been a profound experience…informing me of everything that it takes to create a successful and organized music program,” says Mick Gibbons, alto saxophone section leader, and music education senior.
To bookend its 2018 season, the marching band traveled to perform in two iconic stadiums in support of the Miami Hurricanes football team: the 80,000-seat AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas, for the nationally televised 10th Annual AdvoCare Classic on Labor Day weekend, and in New York’s Yankee Stadium for the New Era Pinstripe Bowl on December 27.
The band also appeared in exhibition at the Bands of America Southern Championship, one of the most prestigious marching festivals. Held at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, 31 high school bands and thousands of spectators watched and cheered as the Frost band performed. The festival was streamed live on the FloMarching subscription platform.
In March the band performed at the Ultra Music Festival with GRiZ, a multifaceted artist known for his mix of electronic dance music, energetic funk, electro-soul, and self-described future-funk, combined with a fiery approach to saxophone playing.
With GRiZ on sax, the Frost band played arrangements of Kanye West’s “All of the Lights” and GRiZ’s “It Gets Better,” a feel-good song about positivity, love, and resilience. They also played a rousing seven-minute grand finale that began with an eight-piece drumline feature, joined by a 13-piece brass section, and ultimately escalating to a crowd-pleasing dubstep drop.
Read the article in SCORE Magazine online
