Senior drum major Rachel Linsmeier marches across Spartan Stadium before the Illinois football game Oct. 16. The Spartan Marching Band will be heading to Indianapolis to perform Friday.
As a high school student, Taylor Benson dreamed of making it to nationals with her school’s marching band.
It’s a dream that will be realized tonight when the Spartan Marching Band performs at the 35th annual Bands of America Grand National Championships.
“Just the fact we get to travel as a group and as role models and a model marching band, it means you’re part of something that’s a really quality product,” said Benson, a media arts and technology sophomore who plays the mellophone in the Spartan Marching Band.
The Bands of America Grand National Championships is a national high school band competition, where 94 bands will travel to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to compete. MSU is one of two collegiate bands performing during the weekend, Spartan Marching Band Director John Madden said.
“It’s a great honor,” Madden said. “When an organization like (Bands of America) — such a huge organization — extends the invitation, that feels goods — that’s special.”
As an exposition band, MSU will perform a 15-minute segment based on songs from the band Journey, and a combination of the pregame, halftime and post-game shows the band performed at the MSU vs. Minnesota football game Nov. 6. It will perform twice, once Friday night and once Saturday afternoon.
MSU CEO“MSU was chosen because it’s one of the finest collegiate marching bands in America,” Martin said. “We wanted to have a band that comes with MSU’s tradition, its excellence and what it has meant as a band community.”
The other collegiate band performing, Riverside Community College from Riverside, Calif., was chosen to contrast MSU’s style.
“Band styles vary across the nation,” Martin said. “The Big Ten style is a unique one, rich in tradition.”
In the past, the Bands of America competition has featured bands such as University of Massachusetts, University of Michigan and the U.S. Army Fife and Drum Corps perform.
At the competition MSU is expected to play for a crowd of about 25,000. It’s not the size of the crowd that has Benson excited. It’s who is sitting in it.
“(When) we perform at football games, it’s a big crowd — it’s a great crowd,” Benson said. “But now we’re performing for people who actually know marching band and understand how difficult the things we do actually are.”
From the 25,000 spectators, about 15,000 will be high school students, some of whom Madden hopes will be influenced to consider MSU as a potential college after hearing the band.
“I hope there’s a real tangible benefit to our performance there,” Madden said. “Even if it was only one person.”
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