Last week, the Frost Band of the Hour took over the Carol Soffer Indoor Practice Field for their annual Famous First rehearsal as if they owned it: drumline thundering, Hurricanette dancers strutting, and the players hoisting the gleaming line of tubas who’ve dubbed themselves The Silver Surge booming exuberantly.
With the Miami Hurricanes football team preparing to kick off their home season this Sunday against Notre Dame, head coach Mario Cristobal welcomed the band’s fired-up spirit. “That is electric energy that’s gonna be a game-changer!” Cristobal told the beaming band members and VIP guests, who included Frost School Interim Vice Dean Serona Elton and women’s basketball coach Tricia Cullop. “Turn that stadium upside down with your juice—just bring it!”
Game-changing juice is exactly what FBOTH leaders Craig McKenzie, director of athletic bands, and Sheldon McLean, associate director of athletic bands, are aiming for. They want the Frost Band of the Hour, a storied University of Miami institution for almost as long as the school has existed, to express the championship swagger of Hurricane sports, the musical verve of the Frost School, and the pride of being a Cane on a whole new level.
“Something we want to do this year is turn heads,” said McLean. “That’s gonna require our energy, our hype, embodying everything about the experience at the University of Miami.”
“The U is cool, the U is confident,” said McKenzie. “When you see someone holding up their hands in that symbol, they’re saying I ride with confidence, I own the room. We are trying to make sure the band feels the same way.”
McKenzie and McLean’s ambitions were high when they took over the band's leadership a year ago. They were overflowing with new ideas, had new funding to expand recruitment and scholarship support for band members, and the enthusiastic support of Professor Robert Carnochan, the former director of bands with whom both McKenzie and McLean had studied while earning their doctorates at the Frost School of Music. Carnochan’s sudden passing last September required them to step up even more quickly and intensively, which was a personal as well as a professional challenge for both men, for whom Carnochan had been a friend as well as a mentor.
But as they head into the new season and school year, the band’s two leaders are daring to swagger a little bit themselves. Although a significant percentage of band members graduated last spring, the group’s numbers still rose, most significantly in key brass sections like mellophone, trombone, and tuba. It was one of many factors that contributed to the group's more unified, powerful, and polished sound.
“All those sections that make the band sound big went up,” said McKenzie. “We attracted the right talent. They can play, they sound good, they look good, they’re hyped. The quality of the band is on the rise. We went from good to even better.”
Rising spirit and musicianship reinforce each other. “To be the biggest and most confident version of yourself requires you to be the best version of yourself, and to make sure you have the skills to back it up,” said McLean.
The two men expanded community outreach and recruitment, with a new focus on engaging local high schools led by McLean, a South Florida native with a long history of leadership in the marching band community. Last fall, they launched a high school band day, working with directors to bring their bands, with approximately 200 students, to perform in the FBOTH’s half-time show at Hard Rock Stadium. They expect even more to join them when they repeat the event for the Hurricanes' second home game against Bethune-Cookman on September 6. April will see the return of another new high school engagement effort, when approximately 100 high school players will have the opportunity to be members of the FBOTH for a day, performing at Cobb Stadium.
Just as crucially, the two band leaders had FBOTH perform at multiple new community and University events. The band played with the Frost Symphony Orchestra for the premiere of Frost School professor Carlos Rafael Rivera’s Centennial Commission on April 26, and were featured in the University of Miami and the Frost School’s massive Centennial Celebration Concert on April 8. The group played at a screening of the Marvel film “Captain America: Brave New World” at the Bill Cosford Cinema in February, and joined pop star Ricky Martin for a World Aids Day benefit concert at Watsco Stadium last December. They also played at a high-profile international event, the Global Champions Arabians Tour on Miami Beach, in April. And the band continues to participate in the Dolphins Cancer Challenge, joining two events last season, with plans to join the Miami pro team’s biggest community and charity event again this year.
The group’s repertoire has been expanded with what McKenzie calls a “yes and” approach. They still play traditional favorites like “Rock You Like a Hurricane” (albeit in a new version), “Skin I’m In,” and the Alma Mater that thrill generations of alumni and Hurricane fans. But they’ve also added more of-the-moment favorites for the diverse thousands who come to home games and help (in McLean’s words) “make the Hard Rock rock.” New numbers include Chappell Roan’s “Hot To Go” last season, and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” and the Rosé and Bruno Mars megahit “Apt.” for this Sunday’s half-time show.All these efforts contribute to deepening that hard-to-define but unmistakable—and crucial— spirit that makes the Frost Band of the Hour an institution that unites the Frost School, the University of Miami, Hurricane athletics, and the South Florida community.
That spirit still animates alumni like Carmine Parente, B.S. '89, whose experience playing with FBOTH as a student made him one of their most enthusiastic and generous donors. Parente took a redeye flight from Los Angeles, where he joined Frost School Dean Shelton G. Berg’s 70th birthday party, to come to the Famous First rehearsal.
“Everything that’s made me successful in my life has to do with band,” said Parente. “In band, you learn to follow, you learn to lead, you learn to work with every part of society. Being able to work and share with everyone in this society makes you a better person and more successful. That’s what the band does for everyone.”
The Frost Band of the Hour inspires that kind of loyalty, said former director Jay Rees, who came to the Famous First rehearsal to support the institution he played with as a student and led from 2014 to 2024.
“There’s a great history here of a culture where the students are working hard together, achieving something special, connecting with and respecting each other, falling in love with their university,” said Rees. “That’s something you feel connected with forever.”
