Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE, Miss.--More than 320 students representing 16 states are members of this year's Famous Maroon Band, as evidenced last week at the Bulldogs' SEC season-opening football game against Auburn.
Annual enrollment in the band has remained consistently high in recent years, a fact director of bands Elva Kaye Lance attributes to an active recruiting schedule, which typically brings 1,000 or more prospective students to campus each year.
"Every school has a unique personality and the only way to really get to know a university is through its events," Lance said. "Nothing speaks more loudly about what MSU is than the students themselves. We bring prospective students in to let them see what it's like to be a part of the band, see a performance, and how they might fit in."
The FMB is among the oldest of its kind in the South and is the largest collegiate marching unit in Mississippi as well as the largest student organization on campus. Seventy percent of band members call Mississippi home and more than 70 percent graduated in the top 25 percent of their high school classes.
In addition to leading the group during pre-game and halftime performances at football games, drum majors assist the faculty directors with music and drill instruction, among other responsibilities.
Many band members, Lance added, also choose to participate in one of the nine major ensembles throughout the year. Members may choose to participate in one of four concert bands, two jazz ensembles and two basketball pep bands, as well as a number of chamber ensembles.
To learn more about MSU's Famous Maroon Band, contact the office at 662-325-2713.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.