By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
No Cecil B. DeMille movies were included in the Falcon Marching Band’s tribute to movies at Thursday night’s football game.
The legendary director of cinematic spectaculars, though, would certainly have appreciated the way the band poured onto the field at the beginning of halftime like the Israelites flowing through the parted Red Sea.
The Falcon Marching Band may not have a cast of thousands, but it is at an all-time high, having grown to 425 members — 415 of whom were on the field on Thursday. That makes it the second largest marching band in the country behind the 500 marching Gamecocks of Jacksonville State in Florida.
That’s close to five times the 90 students signed up for marching band when Jon Waters arrived summer of 2022. The ensemble had undergone a couple years of changes in director and was still recovering from the pandemic.
That would not do, Waters said. So he called on some students to “beat the bushes” for new band members.
They got up to almost 200 that first year under Waters’ leadership, and then almost 300 last year.
Waters gave a lot of the credit to the success of the university as a whole. “Students want to come to BGSU,” Waters said. “It’s in the Goldilocks zone. It’s not too big and not too small. It’s just right in the middle. It has resources and a great hometown feel. Students thrive in that environment.”
And at a time when other universities are struggling with declining enrollment BGSU’s has enrolled one of its largest classes ever.
When it comes to recruiting for the Falcon Marching Band, Waters can’t offer scholarships like athletics can, but he can offer that BGSU experience.
“We want students to feel they are part of our program. Just telling them that we want them as part of our program goes a long way in recruiting students.”
That process though is as much about “recruiting” band directors, Waters said. “I know lots of band directors. I’m recruiting band directors instead of their students.” If the band director knows that students will have a chance to thrive at BGSU, they’ll pass that along to their students. That influences teens’ college decisions.
Waters also works closely with the admissions office to get the names of prospective students who were active in band in high school.
It’s not the size of the band that matters; it’s quality of the performance that’s most important.
On Thursday night just as “Star Wars” was introduced, there was a pause. Then the band, about 375 of whom are instrumentalists, nailed the opening notes of the iconic theme.
“We worked on that quite a bit, the first hit of the ‘Star Wars’ theme,” Waters said. The band wanted to achieve the same musical effect as filmgoers get in theater just as the film’s logo flashes on the screen.
That takes work.
Marching band members reported to campus on Aug. 13, and for the next 13 days until classes started they put in 12-hour days rehearsing, from 9 in the morning until 9 at night.
It was a crunch with Thursday’s first home game scheduled for earlier in the semester than usual.
Waters said marching band, despite what some people say, is an athletic endeavor. Moving around a field, often quickly, executing precise maneuvers, all the while blowing into a horn, is like preparing to run a marathon.
The shows are designed with input from students. They should have a say in what they perform, he said.
In spring students and staff gathered to listen to music, watch film, and discuss ideas. The movie-themed first show was appropriate. Much of movie music works with marching band.
It provides the variety needed for the emotional arch of the show, starting off loud and exuberant, then getting quiet, an ebb and flow that leads to a rousing finale.
The theme of the upcoming homecoming show will be “Falcons in Flight.” It will open with “Gonna Fly Now,” the theme from “Rocky,” and include the jazz fusion classic “Birdland,” the rock anthem “Free Bird,” concluding with music from Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird.”
That range of musical styles is a signature of Waters’ approach to programming. “I try to do that from an educational standpoint.” It’s more valuable for students to experience a range of music.
The growth of the band has created logistical problems in having enough uniforms, and instruments, and in crafting the shows. This week, the drumline was clad in simple white uniforms because the spring order didn’t keep up with demand. More uniforms orange and brown uniforms are on the way.
“It’s all worth it in the end,” the band director said.
Asked whether there’s a limit to how much the band can grow, Waters said “no.”
“We are giving an experience to as many students we can. If we get more students for the band then it’s great for the university,” he said.
“My personal philosophy about being in a marching band in general is that first and foremost we’re in the people building business,” Waters continued. “We are building the next generation of citizens, the next generation of family members, and the next generation of advocates for the arts. It’s a life changing thing. We use the experience in band to build the person. We just happen to do that through music.”
