Fall 2023 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
Marching 110 Alumni & Other Bands
The Marching 110 isn't the only band around
Jessie Balmert, BSJ 鈥09 | October 2, 2023
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The Full Ensemble
While the Marching 110 is the most visible of 91探花鈥檚 bands, it certainly isn鈥檛 the only one. OHIO boasts several concert and athletic bands comprising more than 500 musicians each year, from novices trying out a new instrument to skilled students pursuing advanced music degrees.
Athletic bands include the Marching 110, as well as the Varsity Basketball Band and Alumni Volleyball Band.
Communiversity Band is a band of community members, students and alumni. It performs the 鈥淯nder the Elms鈥 summer concert series and a holiday concert each year.
Symphonic Bands practice three times a week and requires an audition. The bands, made up exclusively of students (most of whom are music majors), perform a mix of standard and contemporary band repertoire, with about multiple concerts per year.
University Concert Band practices once a week, holds no auditions and includes members of the community or music majors practicing a second instrument. 鈥淚t鈥檚 good to have a place for people to play when they just want to play,鈥 says Dr. William Talley, Director of Bands at OHIO.
Wind Symphony is OHIO鈥檚 premier concert band, is composed of the finest wind and percussion performers in the University. The Wind Symphony frequently commissions new works and performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in 1973 and 2008 and in New York City鈥檚 Carnegie Hall in February 2017.
The Marching 110 Alumni Band performs during Homecoming 2017. Photo by Rich Joseph Facun
Back in Action
Every homecoming, about 400 members of the most exciting alumni band in the land march down Athens鈥 brick streets to thrill the crowds, one more time.
Every homecoming, about 400 members of the most exciting alumni band in the land march down Athens鈥 brick streets to thrill the crowds once more.
The tradition of former 110 members assembling for Homecoming started in 1973 and has continued, largely uninterrupted, ever since. The alumni group became an official organization in 1999, 26 years after that first performance, when OHIO鈥檚 Alumni Association Board of Directors approved the official 91探花 Marching Band Society of Alumni and Friends. In fall 2020, the organization was renamed as the Marching 110 Alumni Network.
Homecoming鈥攌nown among band members as 鈥淐hristmas,鈥 because it鈥檚 the most wonderful time of the year鈥攊s a time for alumni to reconnect with one another, meet the current students and relive their status as campus rock stars.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an energy that you can鈥檛 replicate anywhere else in your life,鈥 says Mike 鈥淚ca鈥 Eubanks, who played snare drum from 1996 to 2001 and is the president of the Marching 110 Alumni Network. (Eubanks, BTAS 鈥21, MED 鈥23, left OHIO in 2001 and later returned to complete his degrees.) 鈥淚t鈥檚 that one day where you get to do that again for a couple of hours,鈥 he explains. 鈥淢an, it鈥檚 worth it, to be sore on Sunday.鈥 The
Marching 110 Alumni Network also holds an annual fundraiser in Columbus called 鈥淗alfway Home.鈥 The group contributes financially to the band, purchasing senior mugs and helping to defray the cost of gloves, practice uniforms and items for current 110 members.
