When football season rolls around, University of Miami fans proudly represents our team with green and orange merch. Fanfare is at its best. But it is not the football players or cheerleaders that get us on our feet and lead us to the rhythm of our alma mater's fight song. Here, the pride and pinnacle of our school spirit is none other than The Frost School of Music's Band of the Hour.
This marching band knows how to rock a stadium. With their flashy uniforms, articulate steps, and outstanding choreography, they make sure UM Cane fans aren't let down. Every crisp drill and blaring piece of music reminds us why we love our school and UM Game Day is sacred, cool, and fun, even when our team loses.
To bring us in step with our favorite marching band is Frost School of Music Director of Athletic Bands Professor Jay Rees. Though our football season is winding down, he takes us on a tour of the field to talk about the specific role our student musicians play in creating energy and enhancing the excitement before and during a game and the reason the Band of the Hour is one of the best ensembles at the U.
Marching band or "athletic band." Which term describes The Frost Band of the Hour best?
Jay Rees: Well, for one thing, the athletic band is a term that has come along over the years, and it encompasses any band that performs at sporting events. Here at UM, we have the marching band performing at football games. And then we have the Pep Band, a subset of the marching band that performs at all of the men's basketball games, women's basketball games, and also select volleyball games.
It sounds like a complex operation. And many people don't realize how much goes into it. Tell us more about it.
The marching band performs in four different situations or scenarios: Before the game, during the Pregame show, in the stands, and during the Halftime show. The band is at any given football game three hours before the kick-off. We perform for the fans as they tailgate and prepare for the game, and we also form a big tunnel and entryway for the team when they arrive at the stadium. We play for the team and the fans around the fan zone and then march around the stadium. So, there is an extensive aspect to our musical performance before the game even starts.
Tell us about the pregame show when the band sets the stage for the game.
It's usually a very traditional kind of performance. We come running out of the tunnel and form the U, and then we do something that's called the 'Floating U,' where the U literally moves down the field as we play Hail to the Spirit, which is one of the famous fight songs here at the University of Miami. We spell out Miami in formation. We also spell out CANES and get the whole crowd to engage. So, it's a very interactive, traditional, pep "rally-esque" performance. And, of course, that all leads up to the performance of the National Anthem, a very significant aspect of the band's performance.
And what happens when the game starts?
We're now into our third element of what we do. The band goes into the stands, where we create the 'soundtrack' to the game. Like the film score of a movie, the band is there to heighten people's experience. We play a particular fight song when we score a touchdown, or the 'Darth Vader' theme from the Star Wars films when the defense takes the field or when they stop the opposing team, a longstanding tradition here.
What are "the stands"?
These are songs we play between first and second down, third and fourth down, or after we score a touchdown, a field goal, etc. We're situated in the student section, so we're surrounded by the student body of the University of Miami, and there's great camaraderie and energy there.
What happens during the half-time show—the big event?
Yes, for me, that is the big event. I've been directing college marching bands for 30 years, and the half-time show is our opportunity to go 'outside the box' and do something unique, fresh, and innovative. We choose music and formations and a performance aspect that may be slightly different or unusual. I pick a theme for the entire season to connect all the half-time shows.
The marching band is composed of musicians, twirlers, and dancers too. So, this looks like a highly complex and physical activity.
It is, and that's something people don't think about. No other musical ensemble at our school also dances while they're playing. You don't ask Gerard Schwarz's orchestra to dance the ballet while they play Swan Lake, but that's what a marching band does. We play the music and visually perform it with our very specific choreography, formations, and marching maneuvering. So, it is a very complex activity—very energizing and exciting, which is why I still love it after all these years.
And how do you inspire the students in the band to be excited about it, too?
Picking music that reaches the students is important. Last year, during the 2021 season, all shows were based on music from the James Bond films. Billie Eilish had just released No Time to Die, a song for the most recent James Bond movie. So, we came up with this mashup of very current Billie Eilish music with this very aggressive and iconic James Bond music, and so that was the theme throughout the season. This past season we did the music of Carlos Santana, tapping into Latin music, which is so powerful and significant here in Miami. The students loved it and the fans very well received it. We performed Europa, a gorgeous, compelling, dramatic tune by Santana, at the Homecoming game.
Every year, the Band of the Hour Alumni Association inducts someone into the Band of the Hour Hall of Fame. Who was presented with that honor this year?
We honored Pedro Basnueva. I've known Pedro for 42 years. He was the first person of color to be the Band of the Hour's band captain in the 1983-1984 season—a significant time overall for UM, as it was its first national championship season. Pedro was one of the truly transformative leaders of this program at a very significant time in the band's history. Today, he is a very engaged and influential educator in South Florida, teaching special needs and coaching football and other sports while serving his church as a music minister.
Do students in the marching band need to be Frost School of Music majors?
No, not at all. The marching band is like any other Frost School Music ensemble or class. They sign up for it, get credit for it, and put in long, long hours for the one credit. We rehearse for two hours on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings for three hours. Game days are extensive, as we have to be at the stadium three hours before the game. I have so much respect and appreciation for the students as this is a major commitment, let alone the work ethic it takes for the marching band to be great.
How do you recruit the students?
We do a lot of recruiting throughout the spring semester, reaching out to every incoming first-year student at the University of Miami. Everybody gets an email saying, "Hey, have you thought about joining the band?" We also target all of the incoming students who have any musical background.
What makes our marching band unique?
What I love about the Frost Band of the Hour is that we get such an interesting and varied group of students every year. We have players who are Frost students studying music education, jazz performance, and other different disciplines. For instance, our drumline section leader is a music therapy major, and our trumpet section leader is a jazz performance major. So, we have a great nucleus of really outstanding Frost students. But then we also get students studying engineering, architecture, journalism, and other disciplines who like to play the trombone or saxophone, etc. And then, every year, we'll get students who have never been in a marching band but choose to join to connect with the energy of the UM. Our graduate students work closely with those students every year to get them "up to speed."
And how do our students train those new band members?
They give them individual attention by teaching them a band instrument during our preseason band camp week and the season. We have a young lady who had only played the piano in high school, and she's now one of our strongest saxophone players and doing a great job as our social media chairperson.
How many students do you have in the marching band class?
This season we have 110 students in the band. The band was much smaller when I took over the program in 2014. Marching bands usually have less than 1% of the student population. We have appx. Seven thousand undergraduates, so our numbers are very comparable. We are very proud that our marching band is doing better than most schools in terms of our representation. Meaning, we have students from all over campus, marine science, communications, architecture . . . We have a young lady in the band named Kylie Prieto, a law student and the captain of our Hurricanette Dance team.
There's a misconception that our band consists of all music students. And the reality is that we have more of a cross-section of the campus than any other organization on campus.
And what is the biggest takeaway for the marching band student?
What the students get out of doing marching band at the University of Miami is something that relates to every aspect of their life. Regardless of their course of study, the band teaches universal life skills. Here, they're learning about being the best version of themselves—classy, professional, dedicated, and conscientious. It's about seeing the bigger picture and improving the group through their efforts. I have found through my career that teaching marching band is teaching life skills. We march around on a field, and we play cool tunes, but what we're doing is we're building better citizens in our society!
