University of Massachusetts
Minuteman Marching Band, Amherst, MA - United States

Overview

The Minuteman Marching Band has long been a source of great pride for the University of Massachusetts and the surrounding region. Under the leadership of George N. Parks, founder of the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy, and assisted by DCI Hall of Famer Thomas Hannum (Cadets of Bergen County, Star of Indiana and Blast!) and musical arranger, Michael Klesch (Cadets, Crossmen and Phantom Regiment), the Minuteman Marching Band has emerged as one of the nation's outstanding band programs. Each week at home football games, the "Power and Class" performs its traditional Post Game show for thousands of enthusiastic, dedicated fans who don't leave the stadium until the last note.

Over 350 students experience the excitement of college marching band at UMass. The Minuteman Band has performed for Presidential Inaugural Ceremonies in 1981, 1985, and 2001. In 1993, 2001 and 2004 the band performed at Bands of America Grand Nationals.

In 1998, the Minuteman Marching Band received the most prestigious honor bestowed upon college bands, the Louis C. Sudler Trophy, which is awarded in recognition of "the highest of musical standards and innovative marching routines and ideas, and which has made important contributions to the advancement of the performance standards of college marching bands over a period of several years."

Music at UMass
The Department of Music and Dance enrolls 250 undergraduate and graduate music majors, who pursue a variety of degrees, including Performance, Education, Theory, Compositions, and African-American Music and Jazz Studies. The Department hosts 17 different instrumental ensembles. The Wind Ensemble program, under the direction of Laura Rexroth, has been highly acclaimed for its interpretation of the most substantive twentieth-century wind literature. The Jazz program, under the leadership of Jeffrey Holmes, has gained national and international recognition including top honors and major collegiate Jazz festivals, and many ensemble and individual citations from DOWNBEAT magazine's Annual Student Music Awards.

About UMass
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a coeducational, nationally ranked research institution located in a beautiful, culturally rich New England town surrounded by hills, forests, lakes, and meadows, just a few hours from Boston and New York City. A public university assisted by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, UMass offers an excellent education at an affordable price. Its size, diversity, and the richness of its academic and extracurricular offerings, provide almost unlimited possibilities for personal growth and professional development.

Each year about 18,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students attend UMass from all 50 states and nearly 100 foreign countries. Students can earn bachelor's degrees in over 90 areas, master's degrees in 68, and doctorates in 50. In recent years, UMass faculty members have won an impressive array of the world's most prestigious awards, including: the Nobel Prize; the Pulitzer Prize; the National Book Award for Poetry; the Tanner Prize for Poetry; the American Book Award for Fiction; the Draper Award in Engineering; and numerous MacArthur, Guggenheim, Sloan, Woodrow Wilson, and Fulbright Fellowships

Links

http://www.umass.edu/band/

http://www.umassdrumline.org/

http://www.percussion.org/