Band Historian Richard Taylor, University Archivist Anne Turkos and Band Director Richmond Sparks enjoy the new 100th Anniversary exhibit.

	The exhibit is in the Audrey Armistead Ruckert Reception Foyer on the first floor of Hornbake Library on campus.

	University Archivist Anne Turkos is the curator of the exhibit.

	Musical Milestone covers more than a century of music at Maryland and highlights the development of Maryland's many bands - focusing on the marching band.

	The Marching Band shows its stuff at halftime during the Maryland-Navy game in Baltimore in 2005.

Listen as the Might Sound of Maryland practices.

	WTOP News Radio reporter Kristi King interviewed both Richmond Sparks and Dick Taylor. Listen to her reports on Saturday, October 25: WTOP Report #1 WTOP Report #2 WTOP Report #3 (Inaugural Band)

Tuned Into Student Needs

Under John Wakefield, who led the bands for a remarkable 40 years, their number expanded further in the 1970s with students' push for a jazz studies program. It was necessary to evolve, Sparks says, to meet the needs of a growing number of highly talented music majors who needed experience in different types of ensembles and compositions to prepare for jobs with professional symphonies, or as teachers.

Christopher Vadala, director of jazz studies and an internationally known saxophonist, says a now-defunct fraternity started the first two jazz bands as an extracurricular activity, and after he arrived in 1993, he added another band and the five combos.

Jazz, he says, "is one of the true American art forms. That's part of why the university has embraced it so much. It's multicultural and interdisciplinary. We're a very vital part of the band program."

Tim Powell MA '05, who is working on his doctorate in saxophone, participates in the jazz ensemble. "A lot of the musical opportunities in the School of Music get you ready for professional performances."

Wakefield also introduced the wind ensemble to accommodate the most sophisticated musicians, and university band for the non-music majors who just enjoyed playing. Sparks created the newest group, the highly challenging wind orchestra, just last year. It held its debut concert on Oct. 2.

But besides the marching band, the best-known of the ensembles is the community band, which brings together alumni and local residents. The 65 or so members range from new graduates to musicians in their 70s.

Among them are Caroline '58 and Tom Cherrix '58, who met in the Student Band more than 50 years ago. In the community band, she plays alto sax, and he, the clarinet. Both fondly remember their marching band times.

"It was like being in a club in a big university because you had a lot of activities together," says Caroline Cherrix, who is also a member of the University of Maryland Band Alumni Organization. "You knew your band people."

The roster of the alumni group, in fact, claims more than 4,500 members, who keep in touch through a newly revamped Web site, said president Marianne Kassabian.

"We play a lot of catch-up at Homecoming, even though it seems like no time has passed since we've seen each other," she says. "Well, until you see the size of the Baby Carriage Brigade at the tail end of the Alumni Band!"

Public Service: Helping the Victims of Katrina

In January, 2007, 250 members of the university's marching band loaded tools, musical instruments, work clothes, band uniforms and sleeping bags into five black University of Maryland buses and rolled south to New Orleans, to help Habitat for Humanity build new homes for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

For a week of their semester break, the students volunteered as construction workers in Musicians' Village, a project conceived by Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis to help New Orleans musicians return to the city famous for its music. Read more = >

A Musical Milestone in Hornbake Library

Musical Milestone: Celebrating the Centennial of the University of Maryland Bands recognizes the 100th anniversary of the University of Maryland Bands. Curated by University Archivist Anne Turkos, the exhibit is on display in the Audrey Armistead Ruckert Reception Foyer on the first floor of Hornbake Library through May 2009.

From the small group of 25 cadets who gathered under the baton of Maryland Agricultural College bugler Sergeant Levi G. Smith in October 1908, the band program has grown to encompass more than 500 musicians in 13 different bands. More than 100 items explore the many facets of the band's evolution, and pay tribute to its remarkable contribution to campus life.

Open during Hornbake's regular schedule: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday 8 a.m.-6 p.m; Saturday, noon-5 p.m.; and Sunday, noon to 10 p.m.

Return to the Maryland's Bands Celebrate 100 Years release
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