The Cavalier Marching Band (CMB) is the
marching band
A marching band is a group of musical instrument, instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass instrument, brass, woodwind instrument, woodwind, and percus ...
at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
. The band's original director, William "Bill" Pease, was the first full-time marching band director in the history of the University of Virginia. The Cavalier Marching Band made its debut on September 11, 2004, after a considerable donation was made by University of Virginia benefactors Carl and Hunter Smith to found the band in 2003. The CMB uses a mixture of both
DCI style
glide step and high step in its performances. Of its over three hundred members, all seven undergraduate schools at the University of Virginia are represented.
The band performs a traditional pregame show prior to the start of football games, which usually features school songs such as "The Cavalier Song" and "Virginia Hail, All Hail". The band also performs during halftime, with a wider variety of music ranging from Broadway show tunes to top-40 hits. Following home games, selections from halftime are often repeated in a postgame show for the remaining fans in
Scott Stadium.
The Cavalier Marching Band was selected to march in the 2015 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. More than 44 million viewers watch the parade each year since its first television broadcast in 1939.
In addition, the band has performed at a number of bowl games including the
2011 Chick-fil-A Bowl, the
2017 Military Bowl, the
2018 Belk Bowl, and the
2019 Orange Bowl
The 2019 Orange Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 30, 2019, with kickoff at 8:10 p.m. EST on ESPN. It was the 86th edition of the Orange Bowl, and one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football sea ...
. The CMB was also featured in the 2009 film ''Marching Band,'' a documentary directed by French filmmaker
Claude Miller
Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter.
Life and career
Claude Miller was born to a Jewish family. A student at Paris' IDHEC film school from 1962 through 1963, Miller had his fi ...
.
The Cavalier Marching Band is assisted by the Beta Chi chapter of
Kappa Kappa Psi
Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity (, colloquially referred to as KKPsi), is a fraternity for college and university band members in the United States. It was founded on November 27, 1919, on Thanksgiving Day, at Oklahoma Agricult ...
and the Iota Kappa chapter of
Tau Beta Sigma
Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority, (, colloquially referred to as TBSigma or TBS) is a co-educational service sorority.
The sorority, headquartered at the historic Stillwater Santa Fe Depot in Stillwater, Oklahoma, numbers over 3,800 active ...
.
History
In the years leading up to the formation of the Cavalier Marching Band, the University of Virginia had become the last remaining program in the
Atlantic Coast Conference without a conventional marching band.
In the wake of the
2002 Continental Tire Bowl and the banning of the
Virginia Pep Band from all future editions of that
ACC
ACC most often refers to:
* Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US
*American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...
-tied bowl game, a donation was made by Hunter Smith for the establishment of an official university marching band. The director of the Pep Band at the time, Adam Lorentson, said that cost was the key reason the university did not have a traditional marching band,
while Smith's multimillion-dollar donation made the new marching band a reality.
One of Bill Pease's first moves as director was to invite members of the
Pep Band
A pep band is an ensemble of instrumentalists who play at events, usually athletic, with the purpose of entertaining and creating enthusiasm in a crowd. Often members of a pep band are a subset of people from a larger ensemble such as a marchi ...
to join the new band. In further recruitment efforts, Pease went on to offer spots in the band to musicians at
Piedmont Virginia Community College
Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) is a public community college in Charlottesville, Virginia. It offers associate degrees, one-year certificates, continuing education, and workforce training. The campus is located in Albemarle County, V ...
. Pease was given university songbooks from 1907 upon his arrival, and at the 2004 debut featured such University fight songs as "The Orange and the Blue" and "The Virginia Yell Song."
The band performs new halftime shows at every home football game and travels to one or two road games per season (depending on distance and available funding), as well as occasionally performing in exhibition at high school competitions. In its inaugural season, the Cavalier Marching Band had 170 members. Over 90% of members were UVa students; nearly 100% were from the greater Charlottesville community. By its fourth year (2007–2008), the band reached 232 members. More recently, the band's membership has tended to fluctuate around 320 members. Whenever describing the composition of the members of the band, former director Bill Pease typically pointed out that almost none of the members are music majors. He also emphasized that almost a third of the band's members hold positions of leadership, thus illustrating the virtue of student self-governance, an ideal widely emphasized at the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
.
Notable Accomplishments
The band was featured in the halftime show at the 2005
Music City Bowl
The Music City Bowl is a post-season American college football bowl game certified by the NCAA that has been played in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1998. Since 2020, it has been sponsored by TransPerfect and is officially known as the ''TransPer ...
in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
, and was declared champion of the event's "Battle of the Bands" the night prior, defeating the historic 300-piece
University of Minnesota Marching Band
The University of Minnesota Marching Band (also known as UMMB, Minnesota Marching Band, and The Pride of Minnesota) is the marching band of the University of Minnesota and the flagship university band for the state of Minnesota. The Pride of Minne ...
. More recently, the CMB has performed at the
2017 Military Bowl in Annapolis, MD, the
2018 Belk Bowl in Charlotte, NC, and the
2019 Orange Bowl
The 2019 Orange Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 30, 2019, with kickoff at 8:10 p.m. EST on ESPN. It was the 86th edition of the Orange Bowl, and one of the 2019–20 bowl games concluding the 2019 FBS football sea ...
in Miami Gardens, FL.
The December following the
violence
Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened ...
at
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...
, the Cavalier Marching Band joined forces with
The Marching Virginians
The Marching Virginians are one of two collegiate marching bands at Virginia Tech (the other being the Highty Tighties, the regimental band of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets). Because the Marching Virginians draw from the general student bod ...
of
Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...
to host their first annual joint concert, held at
John Paul Jones Arena
John Paul Jones Arena, or JPJ, is a multi-purpose arena owned by the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Since November 2006, it serves as the home to the Virginia Cavaliers men's and women's basketball teams, as well as for con ...
. The aim of hosting this concert was to raise money for scholarship funds at both schools. Half of all proceeds went to the CMB's scholarship fund while half were given to a memorial fund to honor one of the Marching Virginians who was killed during the violence. It was the first time in the history of both schools that their bands performed together.
In their inaugural season, for their October 7 game against
Clemson, the band performed with
The Temptations Review starring Dennis Edwards.
In the fall of 2007,
Chad Hugo
Charles Edward Hugo (born February 24, 1974) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. With close friend Pharrell Williams, he formed the production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he has prod ...
performed with the band during the halftime show of the November 3 football game against
Wake Forest along with his brother Victor Hugo, on
saxophone
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...
and
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
, respectively. In addition to the band, over three hundred high school marching band students accompanied them on the field, playing three pieces Hugo had helped produce:
Justin Timberlake's
Like I Love You
"Like I Love You" is the debut solo single of American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake from his debut studio album, '' Justified'' (2002), which features American hip hop duo Clipse. It was co-written by Timberlake and the Neptunes (Chad H ...
,
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1986. For most of their career, the band has consisted of vocalist Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young. Since the mid-1990s, the ...
's
Hella Good
"Hella Good" is a song by American rock band No Doubt from their fifth studio album, ''Rock Steady'' (2001). Written by Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal and the Neptunes ( Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), and produced by Nellee Hooper and the band, " ...
, and
N*E*R*D's
She Wants to Move. In 2012, the Cavalier Marching Band performed with
The Temptations
The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top ...
in front of a sold-out home crowd against
Penn State.
Early in the fourth season the UVa Drumline was chosen by
Yamaha Corporation
is a Japanese multinational corporation and conglomerate with a very wide range of products and services. It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the world's largest musical instrument manufacturing company. The former motorcycle divi ...
of North America to represent them in an advertisement campaign that was aimed at high school students to promote Yamaha musical products. Interest in the Cavalier Drumline was initiated when a representative of the Yamaha Corporation paid a visit to a spring rehearsal. The representative noticed and commented on the drumline's professional attitude and was compelled to have them added to the national advertisement campaign.
The drumline shares the honor with other big college bands.
In 2013, a competitive indoor color guard was formed and was named the "UVA CaptiVAtion Winter Guard". Its purpose is to provide existing color guard members the opportunity to improve their skills and compete against other area color guards during the off-season. Most recently, the guard received 3rd place in the 2014 Atlantic Indoor Association circuit championships in the Independent A division.
The Cavalier Marching Band performed in the 2015 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, performing a swing-style composition of the school's historic and traditional "Good Old Song". It was the band's first appearance in the Parade. During the 2017 season, the band welcomed notable singer-songwriter
Lee Greenwood
Melvin Lee Greenwood (born October 27, 1942) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He also plays the saxophone. Active since 1962, he has released more than 20 major-label albums and has charted more than 35 singles on the ''Billboa ...
to perform with the CMB in an arrangement of his 1984 hit single, "God Bless the USA", as part of the university's annual Military Appreciation Day.
Previous Band Organizations at UVA
The earliest appearance of a faculty-led music group performing for sports events was in the mid-1920s, when the University Band provided music for pre-game rallies and at the games.
The band suffered from poor funding and outright disasters through the subsequent years, including a loss of its instruments and uniforms to a bus fire in 1941.
[Dabney, 201-202.] After a brief resurgence in the late 1950s, including allocation of $12,000 for uniforms, instruments, and facilities by a faculty committee under University President
Colgate Darden
Colgate Whitehead Darden Jr. (February 11, 1897 – June 9, 1981) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician aligned with the Byrd Organization who served as U.S. Representative from Virginia (1933–37, 1939–41), the 54th Governor of ...
, the band had dwindled to 25 members by the early 1960s.
[Dabney, 309-310.] The band's performances at football ceased in 1964.
Though no band performed at athletic events during the period of 1964 to 1974, the Virginia Pep Band claims that the band at the time remained a club until it became the Pep Band in the mid-1970s. The student-run Pep Band was the official band of UVa athletics for the period between 1974 and the formation of the Cavalier Marching Band in 2003, with the exception of about one month during 1993.
The next faculty-led band at UVa athletic events, subsequent to the demise of the University Band, was the
UVa Sports Band, a tiny 24-piece band started by UVa's athletic department in 1993 as a replacement for the Pep Band. It played for only a few home football games before disbanding.
References
External links
Cavalier Marching Band
{{ACC Marching Bands
Atlantic Coast Conference marching bands
University of Virginia musical groups
Musical groups established in 2003
2003 establishments in Virginia