The University of Minnesota’s 320-member marching band returned to Northrop Auditorium for its 63rd annual indoor marching band concert.
The band kicked off a full weekend of performances on Friday, with a matinee for elementary, middle and high school students. The concert was open to the public for performances on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Friday matinee hosted 2,000 students, according to marching band director Dr. Betsy McCann.
“It’s so fun to play for that many kids who are just super excited about the music and excited about the band,” McCann said. “Energy is great, and it’s really cool to play for a crowd like that.”
McCann hopes the concert will inspire younger students to continue to pursue music.
“I know it inspires a ton of kids, and hopefully gets kids more interested in music or band or a possibility of what they could do in their futures,” McCann said.
As the auditorium lights dimmed, band members performed traditional school songs like the Minnesota Rouser as band members marched through the aisles to reach the stage.
McCann said the beginning of the concert is fun because it gets the audience excited for the rest of the concert.
“That part’s really fun because if you’re sitting in the audience, you might have a band member literally right next to you,” McCann said. “So you get really close to just the energy and the excitement and everything that happens in the band, it feels like you’re part of it.”
As the band settled onto the stage, they began to perform some of their hits from the 2024 football season halftime shows including favorites through the years, ’70s classics and songs from the Muppets.
The concert also included feature performances from the drumline and color guard.
The drumline writes their own music and choreography to tell a story, according to McCann. The color guard performed their own choreography as well.
Claudia Staut, a third-year cymbals player, said she enjoys the more upbeat music the band performs.
“This upcoming halftime show, we have a classical music show, and we’re playing some of those pieces,” Staut said. “So it’s still nice to kind of have that contrast to it, to still kind of have some calmer pieces, but I just really like the energy with marching band pieces and how they’re more hyped or amped up.”
After performances from the smaller groups, the band transitioned into playing sing-along favorites from previous halftime performances, including hits from the Barbie movie, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé.
Ellie Steffens, a fourth-year clarinet player, said the fun and upbeat tunes this year will make a great experience for the audience.
“I think just the high energy and being exposed to, maybe especially if you haven’t been before, being exposed to kind of who we are, close up, is a fun experience,” Steffens said.
As the concert came to an end, McCann gave a special thank-you to the band’s 89 graduating seniors. As director, McCann said the most important part of her job is bringing all the parts of the show together.
“It’s such a huge production, and there’s so many different people in charge of different things, which is really, really awesome because I’ve got a great team of people,” McCann said. “I think the biggest thing for me is just making sure that everything is happening as it should, and if everybody is executing their jobs, it’s going to be a great concert.”
