Tom Mayr '19, Mellophone
While the Chargers marching band has grown dramatically over the past decade, its devoted musicians — now 270 strong — have formed a powerful bond.
Shannon Killough '18, Flute
It didn’t take long for Elyse Stanziale ’22 to feel the love. It swept over her during marching band camp last summer. Over long days beneath a merciless August sun, she and the other members
of the University’s vaunted band played and marched (and marched some more) as they learned the new music and drills for the coming season.
Stanziale was learning to play a new instrument, the baritone horn. It was sweaty work, but she saw how every member of the band inspired every other member. She saw the love everywhere she looked, and she couldn’t get enough.
"It’s a huge family there — a
family in every sense of the word,"
says Stanziale, a music and sound
recording major from New Jersey.
"Everybody really loves and
supports each other.
There’s no way of avoiding the heat and
being thirsty and holding up
a really heavy instrument for
a really long time. As much as
I would complain about it, it’s
so much fun, and I wouldn’t
have it any other way."
"It ’s a huge family there, a family in every sense of the word, Everybody really loves and supports each other." Elyse Stanziale ’22 - Baritone Horn
That family atmosphere
has become a hallmark of
a musical ensemble that has
grown dramatically, in both
size and stature, over the past
decade. But it was not always
so. When Jason DeGroff was hired as marching band director in 2009, the band had
only recently been revived, following the return of the Chargers’ football program
a year earlier. That first year, the band’s 20 members wore uniforms — and, in some
cases, played instruments borrowed from local high schools. It was, to put it gently,
a modest start.
DeGroff was undeterred. He recruited student musicians on campus and high
school students during campus events and off-campus performances in festivals
and exhibitions. After two years, the band topped 100 members. Three years later,
it topped 200. And, when the band took the field before the first home football game
of 2018 against Southern Connecticut State University on September 15, it numbered
some 270, with members from Alaska and Texas, from Florida and Washington
State. One is from China, another from India.
As a six-year member of the band, Erin Snyder ’16, M.S. ’18 has enjoyed a front-row
seat to its evolution. "More people coming to the University know about the band and
how fast we’ve grown and how good we are," she says. "It’s amazing."
A Selection of Love Songs
DeGroff chooses the music for each marching band season and writes all the
drills — the choreography that directs each musician on when and where to march.
For this year’s program — "with all the craziness in the world," DeGroff says —
he chose a selection of love songs, including Bob Marley’s "One Love" and Whitney
Houston’s "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)."
"He’s kind of like the father figure of the band," Snyder says of DeGroff. "He’s
the reason we are a family. He’s helped foster those relationships between the band
members, and I think it’s awesome."
Kaelyn Passeri ’17
The band’s annual summer camp is vital to its solidarity. Over 10 grueling days in
August, band members begin thrice-daily rehearsals over the course of 13-hour days.
Stanziale recalls staying
up late each night during
last year’s band camp
in conversation with her
bandmates. "I didn’t sleep
all week," she says.
Second-year
graduate student
Will Ciccone ’17,
a percussionist and
baritone horn player from
New York, arrived at his
first band camp with
no prior marching band
experience. "I saw how
intense it was," Ciccone
recalls. "I was like, ‘Oh
boy, I hope I can do this.’
Everyone around me said, ‘Don’t worry, everything will all make sense.’ And it ended
up all making sense. They helped me adjust very quickly." This season, for the
second time, Ciccone is serving as drum major.
Tony Molina '17, Bass
Each fall, the band rehearses for three hours on Mondays and Fridays, then another two hours on Saturdays before home football games. During those Saturday rehearsals, as many as 100 parents of band members prepare breakfast for the musicians — bacon, eggs, pancakes, home fries. DeGroff’s brother and sister-in-law, David and Lisa DeGroff, started the tradition five years ago when their son Thomas '17 played baritone horn in the band.
DeGroff’s devotion to the musicians inspires their reciprocal loyalty to him and
to each other. "When you’re out on the field," says Phil Passante ’19, a trumpeter from
Staten Island, New York, "and it’s so hot, and we’re all ready to pretty much drop dead,
you still have that drop of motivation and positivity to finish up that phrase, to show
Jason this band means as much to us as it does to him."
In September, for the third straight year, the group performed at the Collegiate
Marching Band Festival in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a showcase of 20 college bands
attended by more than 6,000 spectators. In 2020, to mark the University’s centennial,
DeGroff hopes to see the band march in the Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
Kappa Kappa Psi
Jacob Eckert '17 and Chris Costantini '19, Front Ensemble Members
In 2016, the band created a campus chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national,
coeducational fraternity for college bands. Leah Myers ’18, a clarinetist from
Connecticut (and a 2017 drum major), helped organize
the chapter with tuba player Christopher Zygmunt ’17, the
chapter’s founding president. Myers, a granddaughter of Samuel S. Bergami Jr. EMBA ’85, HON ’02, member of the University’s Board of Governors, and his wife Lois, says that the chapter, begun with 30 members, today has nearly 50.
The members organize
fundraisers for the band,
recruit prospective
band members, and
perform service projects
on campus. "When we
became a chapter, we
hit the ground running,"
Myers says.
Some students remain in the band even after graduating. Snyder was the first.
A mellophone player from Pennsylvania, she was named one of three drum majors
as a senior, then marched for two more years, including a
second as drum major, while pursuing a master’s in forensic
technology.
"It was a no-brainer. I’m not ready to leave this program. I want to see
where it’s going the next two years."Erin Snyder ’16, M.S. ’18
Members of the Mellophone Section