As football games sell out to Ruckus crowds, the marching band matches their energy. PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Hubbard – shotbyfriday.com
The University of Rhode Island’s Ram Band has a new pep in its step, bringing fanfare and cadences back to campus after a year without fan-attended performances.
Getting to make music in front of a crowd has brought the Ram Band marching together again, according to Associate Director of the Bands Brian Cardany.
“It’s been interesting, on top of everything, that the [football] team is doing really well, and they’ve been basically selling out their home games,” Cardany said of the team’s five-game winning streak at the beginning of the season. “So there’s a special energy to that, that’s been nice to come back to as we get back into the sort of normal routines.”
For Kirsten Sabia, a senior elementary education and special education major who plays the trumpet, the energy this year is “contagious” with the Ram Band being back in uniform.
Last year, according to Cardany, the marching band could not perform at athletic events with audiences but made videos to put online and give the band a chance to play together.
When performing and practicing last year, Cardany said that the band used personal protection equipment (PPE) while playing their instruments. This included wearing masks, sometimes with slits, to play their instruments, and spacing out for social distancing efforts.
“Last year we had extensive PPE,” said Danielle McClendon, a tenor saxophone player and senior marine biology and marine affairs double major. “I know I had to use a king-sized pillowcase on my tenor sax; so that was definitely an adjustment.”
This year, when outdoors, performers do not need PPE with a return to a “little more sense of normalcy,” according to McClendon.
Their week-long band camp was also unable to be held last year, where they usually receive their uniforms and learn marching drills, music and the fundamentals. They will also typically learn a full pregame show here. Cardany said this drove home how important band camp is, as it took two months for him to cover what is typically covered during that week.
“That week of band camp is really important for a functional reason as far as how much they learn, how much we learn and to get set up for the season,” Cardany said.
The bonding experience that band camp lends itself to for the Ram Band before classes start is a “really important” part of the marching band experience, Cardany said. Virtually every college is represented in the Ram Band, with majors from nursing to oceanography to engineering and beyond.
By the end of the week, those who attend band camp don their uniforms and can say they are a part of this “slice of URI culture,” according to Cardany.
Some students who may not have come to the University with an instrument of their own are able to receive school-owned instruments to perform with the band on loan, Cardany said. Some of the instruments are marching band specific or specific to the University’s athletic performances and need to be given out, such as marching baritones, the color guard flags and the drumline set.
McClendon said she was one of these students who needed to borrow an instrument from the University for the Ram Band. She recounted the story of meeting Cardany for the first time at band camp her freshman year, where he helped her as she was lost looking for a tenor saxophone.
“I will always remember that,” McClendon said. “That basically just sparked a huge family feeling of being in the band and everyone that has joined the band has felt like this is one big family.”
A lot of friendships from the Ram Band last a long time, according to McClendon, as alumni keep in touch and come back to visit when they are able to.
However, Ram Band alumni were unable to attend this year’s Alumni & Family Weekend football game against Stony Brook University, as the school worried about selling enough seats, according to Cardany.
“That is an important part of the culture; keeping track of our alumni,” Cardany said. “We often get 60, 70, 80 alumni to come back and perform with us at halftime.”
By the time the Ram Band had found out that the game had sold out, Cardany said they were not able to tell the alumni to purchase tickets to attend the game. In the future, he said that he will push to ensure that there is a plan set in place to invite their alumni back.
“The alumni connection is really important,” he said. “It’s part of our culture, it’s a history of our culture — it’s our legacy you know.”