About the Miami University Marching Band
..By David Shaffer,
Director
It is hard for me to imagine that this next year will be my 28th year associated with the Miami University Marching Band and the 8th year as director. The past 28 years have brought many changes to the musical direction of organization, but in so many ways the band is still the same organization that I encountered in 1978. We are still the primary source of spirit for our football team. We still take pride in our ensemble and place excellence of performance as a priority. Over these past years, the memorable performances have been numerous; our performance at the California bowl in 1986, the first (of seven) performance at a Buffalo Bills game in 1987, our performance with the Cincinnati Pops at the opening of the Aronoff Center in 1995, our BOA performances, the early Band Day performances at old Miami Field with guest conductors such as Col. Arnold Gabriel, performances at Ohio Stadium and Michigan Stadium, and our Cincinnati Bengals performances. Consecutive Bowl games in Mobile and Shreveport these past 2 years have been a testament to the success of the Miami football team and the band has been there with 100% support. 28 years of band camps, homecomings, year-end concerts, parent days, fire prevention parades, 140 home football games, 38 road trips, and over 3,000 band members have given me a prospective not only about the importance of the Miami band to the university community we represent, but to it’s life blood, the student members. One example, this summer will mark the wedding of several more couples from the MUMB, bringing the total to approximately 200 marriages over these 27 years.
This year we will welcome another record breaking 120 incoming freshman to the band at Miami. Again we will begin the process of preparations for our 2005 season. Again the band will be there in full support of the Miami football team and once again we will do what we do best, make music and put it into motion at Yeager Stadium.
We have a very busy September this year, kicking off the season with our 2nd trip to Columbus on September 3rd for the OSU/Miami football game. Our home season opener (also homecoming) will be against Central Michigan on September 10. On September 17th we are hosting a Regional Bands of America contest at Yager. This is an exciting prospect for all of us as this contest will bring over 10,000 band members, parents and hard-core high school band fans to Oxford for the day, giving us the opportunity to perform an exhibition performance between the prelims and finals competition. Our first of 2 ESPN nationally televised games will be against Cincinnati on September 28th.
An exciting change for all of us this year will be our placement in the new east bleachers. To facilitate the excitement and spirit that the band brings to our home football games, we have been given the very best seats in the stadium! We will be at the very top of the new east stands between the 40 yard lines. 2005 looks to be another very exciting year for the Miami Marching Band.